Once Upon a Time in Aincrad
by Boredtoneardeath
Summary: A story that follows the life of an orange player, and his lazy search for the Divine Stone of Returning Soul. OC x Lisbeth. Also comes with slightly different interpretations of the official events. AU
1. Asking Questions

Author's Note: This story takes place on Sword Art Online, part of Kunori Fumio's work, and not by me. This is my first FF and I would appreciate (Need) any reviews, or comments.

**Asking Questions**

Once upon a time in Aincrad there was a small house on top of a hill. Inside there were two players sitting across each other, one with a grin and another with a green light. The latter had a frown and was tied down with rope and a small throwing knife sticking out of his back.

Poking the sleeping man with a long wooden stick, the happy friendly man said. "Hello Chikao. My name is Orion and I will be your host today."

"What?" The other man who was an information broker named Chika blurted out, his eyes full of surprise. "Host? Get me out of these right now!"

"But if I do that Chikao, you will run away and call hurtful things like 'look at the idiot who untied the ropes and let me escape!'. Besides I know you had your tiny little hands behind an ambush that involved a certain item, that allows someone to cheat death." Orion spoke with a warm smile on his face.

The information broker with his face turning bright red with rage screamed. "If the army learns what kind of shit you are doing to me right now, they would run you through like a rabid dog-"

*Caugh* "Sorry Chikao but I wouldn't bet that the incompetent fools in the army will catch me, let alone run me through with their pointy butter knives."Orion replied with a grin, pulled out a small dagger and a bottle filled with dark green liquid.

"Now since I have to be going places and you will probably be dead by the time we finish ... no offence. I will try to make this quick. It will be simple, I ask you a question and you answer back. Got it?"The robed man leaned back on his chair and lazily asked with his voice tingling with extreme boredom. "First question, what is the name of the item I am looking for?"

"What? Do I look like a psychic!? How the fuck am I suppose to know that you old shit." The young information broker spoke out bravely.

Sadly his courage was ignored as Orion slammed the dagger at Chikao's leg. "Wrong answer and for your information my feelings are a little hurt, old shit pfft, I am brand new shit, fresh from the oven... freshly squeezed-"

"What the fuck is wrong with you!" The information broker screamed in agony and Orion unwilling to hear such foul language quickly rewarded Chikao with another stab.

"Like I said Chikao, answer the questions and me no no stab you, capiche?." Hoping that his captive understood his secretive message Orion continued. "Second question! Who has the [Divine Stone of Returning Soul] now?"

After a few moments, the robed man grew tired of waiting and stabbed his captive.

"OW! You sick twisted shit, you didn't even let me answer!" Chicako whimpered in agony, after a moment to compose himself he added. "W-Why are you doing this?" Stuttering as he noticed how far his health has dropped.

"Because I like to know that I am right." Orion answered with a broad smile. "Though I am flattered that you want to know me better, one last question for you then we will be done here, one way or another."

"Who were the nice gentlemen that killed our beloved Santa Claus last Christmas?" Orion watched the young information broker's reaction for a few seconds, then shrugged his shoulder as the information broker kept his silence and raised his dagger high in the air.

"Thanks for playing, but silence was not the correct answer." Orion said in a rather disappointed tone of voice as he began to bring the dagger down until Chikao spoke suddenly.

"No! Wait yes! Alright I know who it was!" Information broker screamed and began to speak after a moment of hesitation. "Weeks ago, I tipped off the Divine Dragon Alliance that some beater, called the Black Swordsman, found out the location of a Saint Nicholas and went after it, that's all I know I swear, j-just let me go!"

_Well now, that's a bit of unanticipated piece of information... _Orion thought as he processed the new information through his head.

Orion scratched his head and drew a dumb expression on his face. "But as for letting you go... I dunno still! You answered all my questions so I will cut you free like a bird, but first I would like you to look at this." The man raised his right hand.

"What a bottle? You have been holding that all this time." The information broker replied nervously.

"Before you get excited, no its not a magic bottle, no genie will come out no matter how hard I rub it, but... it does make my dagger..." Orion spoke with a mocking tone as he dipped the dagger into the green liquid. "poisonous, fascinating eh?"

"In other words... this dagger will slowly drain your considerably low hp all the way to rock bottom..."

With that said, Orion gently stabbed Chikao with a cold smile on his face and headed towards the door as his captive's health began to drop. "Don't worry Chikao I will be back to untie those ropes after a short stroll through the forest, but then again you might not be here to see that."

"No... no. No! No! No! I told you everything I know! Just Let me go! You got to help-" The panicked voice died down abruptly as the robed man closed the door behind him.

After a short stroll, Orion came back and kept his promise and untied the ropes that were tied to the chair.

_Who falls a sleep after being told that he is going to die by poison? I'd spend my supposed last moments thinking of creative ways to insult the guy who did this. _Orion though as he looked at the sleeping player with shame. Tossing the sleeping player to the corner of the small shed carelessly, Orion closed the door behind him and drank the remaining of green liquids inside the vial.

"mmmh... apple juice." After emptyin gthe bottle he tossed the it into the woods._  
_

* * *

The Next Day 3rd Floor.

Sitting alone in the relatively quiet NPC owned restaurant in the Misty Forest. A third floor that has been forgotten by many but foggy nonetheless, a man dressed fully in brown looked towards the sky.

_Ah what a wonderful day!_ He thought._ With the warm mist blocking out the sun and the sound of beautiful computer birds singing on top of the trees. If only the bread was not so bland. _Orion mused as he continued to chew_. Perhaps I should buy a restaurant just likes this and cook something better, it might be a dull existence but at least I won't be eating this crap any more-_

With a gentle tap on the shoulder, Orion pushed his thoughts away and turned around to face a young man in his late teens cloaked in grey.

"Mind if I sit down?" The newcomer asked.

"Of course not, though I must warn you that the food here is just down right disgusting." Orion said as he took a stab at the piece of burnt sausage.

"I see... well enjoy your disgusting food, anyways I have a small present for you." The newcomer said as he sat down and opened the game menu.

Moments later a trade window appeared and the newcomer transferred fifty thousand Col, in a blink of an eye a new message appeared. *Accept trade?*

Without a hesitation, Orion accepted and the message disappeared into the fog.

"That's the bonus for the scammer job." The man in the grey cloak stated. "The extra cash is supposedly for your outstanding performance but we both know that its to keep you mouth shut about job."

"Ha! You know that I never show and tell, ." The Orion replied with a chuckle. "Though between you and me, the idiot should have never take foods from stranger... serves him right, should have listened to his mother."

Sanitator waving his hand spoke with a hint of annoyance in his voice "Any-ways that's not important, I am hoping that you know something about an information broker who went missing yesterday. Does any of this ring a bell?"

_Only if you ring it_ Orion thought to himself then asked. "You say his name is Chikao?"

"Ya? You know where he is? Because the army is looking for that punk and are willing to either pay a stack of cash if you tell them his whereabouts. "

_Probably wondering why he is in middle of nowhere. _Orion mused and spoke with in apologetic tone. "Sorry I wish I could help you, now if that is everything, I best be on my way. Wouldn't want you to be caught talking to an orange player in this nice... dump."

"And since when did I suddenly become aware of society's disapproving glares?" Sanitator spoke with a grin and quickly added. "Besides, I got a new contract. Someone wants to eliminate a player a part of the clearing group."

"What?" Orion gasped in mock. "Who would want to harm the brave heroes of ALF who fight in behalf of all of us?"

"Drop the army propaganda Orion, I know you had first hand experience with the disaster on twenty fifth floor, and I know that you know that they have been sticking to guarding the lower levels."

"And keeping their necks safe." Orion replied snidely.

"I wouldn't blame them after a going through massacre like that, but enough about the army. Our client has sent a contract that involves a certain guild leader."

"And here I was thinking that Aincrad was a paradise ruled by a benevolent game master, where everyone held hands and danced in harmony." Orion spoke sarcastically. "Is it anyone we read about in the papers?"

"No, he's a low profile guy. His name is Jackdaw and he..."

"Are you seriously? I am going after a bird?." Orion asked skeptical of what he was hearing. "Can he fly if I throw him over a cliff?"

Sanitator ignoring the interruption continued.

"And... he is the leader of a guild called LdA."

"I still find it hard to believe that anyone outside the army can be hated." Orion stated as he twiddled his thumbs.

"I don't know why you are so obsessed with the army, but you do realize that people outside aren't exactly saint themselves right?" Sanitator spoke with an irritated voice. "And to answer your question, I don't know. The client didn't say but my guess is that if you throw him he will fall and die like any other guy."

"Anything else you want to ask?"

"No, no. Well except for payment, you know the old saying innocent until paid for?"

"You mean innocent until proven guilty" Sanitator corrected Orion. "But this job is a little different the client in her infinite wisdom feels that handing over one and a half million Col over in advance is rather risky.

"A little different than a usual?" Orion exclaimed. "With that much cash I am sure the 'she' whoever that is, can hire half the Coffin boys to just go smother him to death with hugs!"

_Ya...this is too good to be true. _Orion thought then with spoke cautiously. "While I am flattered that you think so highly of my skills, maybe you should double check this is not a trap, it would be much cheaper to hire a common thug to bash-"

"Wait, wait, that's not all." Sanitator interrupted, holding his hand up. "This is a task that requires a little bit of ingenuity, which is beyond the reach of a common thug."

"When did sticking a knife to a person take high levels of intelligence?" Orion asked, feeling slightly anxious at where the conversation was headed.

"It doesn't, but the job isn't to stick a knife into the guy, in fact you cannot be seen killing him. The client has made it extremely clear that no one suspects he was killed by another player."

"So? I can just throw him over a cliff. Falling to death will easily trick the system into thinking that he committed suicide, besdies I think bird man might want to take to the sky with that kind of name." Orion replied with the obvious answer.

"No. It is essential that this has to either look like a suicide or an accident, and-"

"And players don't just decide to take a dive, okay then I will create a unique situation then..." Orion smiled evilly with his brain now running various scenarios on how to kill this poor man.

"Then?" Sanitator asked.

"Then I push him and see if he can fly!."

* * *

Edit: 11/1 Major story change.


	2. Drowning with Guilt

**A/N**

All chapters as of November 1st have gone extensive change or are undergoing on right now.

**Drowning with guilt.**

A few days after his meeting with Sanitator, Orion dressed in his usual brown clothes, sat on top of a large tree branch inside the ancient forest on the 22nd floor. A floor known for it rather difficult fishing spots but also for its lack of any significant hunting grounds, making it a yet another floor that players either briefly visited or ignored all together.

For days, Orion had stalked Jackdaw and his merry guild and found out that Jackdaw was hell-bent on finding better gear for his guild members so that they could be part of the front line.

Naturally this meant that Orion had to spend a small fortune to find the location of a rare mini boss, a boss with a loot that Jackdaw would not be able to resist.

_But it's going to be worth it, I am sure that when Jackdaw receives the leaked coordinates he will be chirping his way here in no time._ _Still... Sanitator better have delivered those coordinates today or I will be sitting here for a very long time_. Orion thought as he sat on top of the tree using his hiding skill to avoid detection.

Below him was the mini boss Leshy the woodland spirit, a giant plant like humanoid with a large hatchet on his right hand and entangled roots growing beneath its chins that formed a mushy beard that resembled a beard of a garden gnome.

To pass the time, Orion opened his inventory and pulled out the day's newspaper, and the front page story was not what he was expecting.

_'Army captures twenty criminals in a single day' Seriously?! _Finding the article Intriguing he continued to follow the story.

Yesterday at 22:00, only a few days after the capture of the Titan's Hand, another blow was struck to the Orange community as a successful Army raid has resulted in the capture of an entire orange guild Crimson Crusade on the 28th floor's merchant quarters. This group of orange players, while nowhere near as notorious as the infamous Laughing Coffin, had been known to frequently practice violence actions and racketeering in the lower levels. The army captain who organized this raid, Captain Noste, had this to say to the Aincrad observer, "We are happy to announce to all players that the army with the help of private citizens has managed to wipe the last of the criminals in this floor. The orange players we have caught on today's raid will be enjoying a permanent stay at the Black Iron-"

_Bull shit, what whose the editor of this story? Whoever wrote this has no creativity what so ever... there is no way that the army could have caught so many of us, let alone shut down an entire guild._ Orion, in fit of anger tossed the paper to a nearby tree and re-focused his attention to the trail that led to his position.

Only a few minutes later, just as Orion was about to contact Sanitator to see if the information had indeed been delivered, he spotted five tiny silhouettes in the distance.

_If that's not Jackdaw and his merry gang, there is going to be some seriously awkward moment when I explain that I reserved the spot to kill someone._

As the small group drew near, Orion began identifying the members of the group and released a sigh of relief.

The first face he saw was a red-haired skinny teenager armed with mid level spear and shield who Orion had dubbed as senior tanker. Directly behind him was a girl, around the age of fourteen with curly black hair, holding a sword and a shield who he had nicknamed junior tanker.

Recognizing the two faces with after days of stalking, Orion crossed his fingers and thought to himself. _So far so good, if those two are here than Jackdaw, the amazing bird, won't be far behind._

His predictions came true moments later as he recognized the third member of the party as none other than Jackdaw himself, a fairly large brown-haired man clad in dark grey suit of metal armor wielding a massive two hander that seemed capable of chopping down trees with a single stroke. Behind him were two lightly armored swordsmen who clearly could use a better gear, and was not very interesting to look at.

_Five players in total, by the looks of their gear, the first two must be the tanks while the other three are for moral support and to steal the loot. _Meanwhile while Orion studied the small group, Leshy the mini boss, who by no means was tiny, took notice of the trespassers.

Jackdaw realizing that they had been spotted by the boss, signalled to stop and spoke to the group.

"Alright this is it, just as we discussed before. Nori and Ken will charge in first and grab the boss's attention." Jackdaw said pointing to the two tankers. "Meanwhile the three of us will go around to his back and attack him."

"Don't worry Jack we will distract that… oversized garden gonme." The senior tanker answered as Jack and his two lackeys began jogged around and positioned themselves behind the boss.

* * *

Once they were in position, the two tanks, signalled the other half of their group and burst past the bushes, charging the boss. Jack's group followed moments later, slicing at the boss's rear.

_What a finally coordinated Anal attack. _Orion thought as he watched in amusement.

With a practised coordination, the two tankers continuously switched, forcing the AI to reprogram its response between the two and thereby forcing it to ignore the three attackers behind it.

Sitting on the tree and staying motionless like a gargoyle Orion watched the fight unfold before his eyes, secretly hoping that one of them would make a mistake and wipe out the whole party, so that he would not have to do any work at all.

Unaware of his wish, the group fought on with precision and efficiency until Leshy's remaining health bar turned from yellow to red. Orion now worried about the state of his plan began muttering to himself. "No, I planned this for too long for it to go wrong when I am so close, if Leshy can't kill them by himself I'll give him a helping hand..."

Unable to lose this opportunity, Orion equipped his throwing knives tipped with potion of paralysis and sent the poisoned throwing knife straight towards the two tanks, which landed squarely on the junior tanker's back. Who did not even realize she was poisoned until she dropped her sword and collapsed into the ground.

The senior tanker, realized moments later that his partner was crumpled on the ground, tried desperately to hold the boss by himself. As he continued to launch a barrage of sword skill to regain control of the situation, he shouted to his guild leader. "Jack! Nori's down! The boss must have paralysed her!"

Realizing that something was terribly wrong, Jackdaw began slowly circling around the boss to reach the tankers to see what was wrong.

However, the AI no longer distracted by two tankers, turned to face his attackers who had been chopping away at his buttocks for the the entire fight. Two players who had been out of the harm's way throughout the fight, now faced the boss himself as Leshy the gentle forest giant pulled his arm back and swung his axe in a horizontal arc.

One of the two swordsmen, seeing that he was about to die, cursed loudly and shouted "Teleport Taft!" and disappeared to safety.

Orion, safely hidden from the boss, muttered to himself. "There goes our witness to the tragedy."

Moments later the second swordsmen, panicked by the fact that his friend was nowhere to be seen, broke into a run and almost managed to escape until he died instantly when his body was split in half by Leshy's hatchet.

The mini boss, satisfied with his accomplishments turned back around to face the senior tanker who by this time had come to a conclusion that escaping was the only available choice and was desperately dragging the junior tanker away from the boss.

Jackdaw realizing that two of his party members were gone and that the other two were seconds from death, stopped in his tracks.

_Go!_ Orion wanted to shout to Jack. _Go save your friends! Buy them enough time to escape! Then I will put you to sleep while Leshy cleaves you in half!_

However, instead of sacrificing himself for the two of his friends as Orion hoped, Jack wavered for a moment then ran towards the forest, away from the boss.

_What?_ Orion thought. _Go back! Go save your friends, you gutless shit!_

Leshy unaware of the drama unfolding right next to him, raised his hatchet high into the air determined to kill the last of his attackers.

Orion, realizing that his plan had failed and that two players were about to die, hesitated for a split second then equipped his dagger and activated his blade throwing skill Costly throw, a skill that allowed a player to throw a dagger in place of conventional projectiles and deal massive damage, but in exchange destroyed the dagger.

As his dagger flew straight and true towards Leshy. Orion saw the hatchet descend towards the two tankers at an alarming rate and the terror inside the tanker's eyes as he must have realized that his time in this world was coming to an end.

Fortunately, for the terrified tanker just as the axe was about to shatter him and his friend, the dagger struck Leshy's head, exploding both the dagger and Leshy into tiny fragments.

While satisfied that he was faster than a slow tree like humanoid, Orion took a moment and scolded himself for destroying such a fine weapon.

As Orion mentally disciplined himself. The senior tanker, unable to understand out what had just occurred, accepted his good fortune and used the antidote crystal on his partner and quickly teleported themselves back to town.

Orion realizing that he was alone and that his prey was getting away, quickly jumped down from the tree branch and sprinted after Jackdaw.

As Orion chased after Jackdaw, he angrily shouted to himself, "Just wonderful, I plan out a perfect accident and but noooooo... Jacky is too afraid to save his friends! Scum bag like him deserves more than a gentle fall from a cliff."

Only several hundred yards away from the angry hunter. Jackdaw fighting the urge to cry, murmured to himself. "Oh my god Hugh is dead, and I left Nori and Ken to die. What the hell happened, it wasn't supposed to be like this, it was supposed to be an easy boss."

Not knowing what to do, Jack questioned the trees for answers. "What am I going to do? What am I going to tell the rest of the guild? Jesus they must be all dead!" As he continued to scream in agony he suddenly felt tired and his conscious slipping away from him, until he saw a throwing knife sticking out of his ribs. As his vision darkened the last thing he saw was death, dressed fully in black, rushing towards him with a coil of rope in his hand.

* * *

22nd Floor-In the middle of the Great Lakes

Jackdaw woke up to the sounds of gentle waves, as he opened his eye he saw the stars illuminating the dark sky. He tried to raise his hand but found out that his body was paralysed and that his arms and legs were tied together with rope.

Seeing a man dressed fully in brown clothes, Jackdaw spoke "Where am I? Why am I here?"

"Ah glad to see that you are finally coming around Jacky, in case you haven't noticed we are going on a little cruise." A man dressed in brown said affectionately.

"Don't worry I hear its beautiful around this time of the night, in fact some might say that this is a romantic cruise." The man smiled and lifted Jackdaw from the floor and placed him upright so that he could look at his captive in the eye. "So my lover! Shall we enjoy the beautiful night sky?"

"Wh-what? Who are you? Why are you doing this?"

"I am a little disappointed that you cannot recognize a professional of my caliber but then again hardly surprising."Orion said, in a patronizing tone.

The brown-haired man replied arrogantly. "Still it is only polite to introduce myself, I am Orion! Your tour guide for today, here to make sure that the last living moments of your life is as painful as humanly possible."

"What? What are you talking about? Listen I don't know what's going on but I can pay you." Jackdaw blurted out as he noticed orange cursor above Orion.

_Oh jeez he's gonna pay me, you never hear that line. Tell me another one! _Keeping his serious tour guide face Orion answered."That's a tempting offer Jacky but as a salary man I just can't afford people talking about my poor work ethics."

"You have the wrong guy, I swear I haven't done anything to piss off the laughing coffin or any other red guilds."

"Hahaha, that's a shame then I won't be getting any favors from them for this. Enough chit-chat, let's get started."

Jackdaw looked at Orion with questioning eyes. "Started? Started on what? You know I am part of a clearing group, I am a hero I am trying to get everyone out of this game."

"A hero? I swear that I saw you leaving your friends to die Jacky."

"How did you know? Wait, wait I-I didn't do anything wrong."

"Yes but you didn't do anything right either, if you had just followed through my script! If you had just been killed by Leshy, the newspapers would have written about you as a brave hero who died to save his friends." Orion replied angrily, as his mind took a small trip down the memory lane. "But now, look at what you have done! Your friends are dead! And it is all thanks to you."

"No.. No... no I didn't mean to leave them behind!" Jackdaw shouted in fear.

"But you did and instead of saving them, you thought keeping your neck was better, and as a consequence for your action I get to waste an entire evening with a scum like you." Orion said arrogantly.

"Wait, if you saw all this happen! Why-Why didn't you save them?" Jackdaw blubbered.

"The same reason why you didn't." Orion lied with a grin on his face. "Though don't worry, by tomorrow the papers will be harping a different story, a tragic tale of a boss encounter gone wrong and how a young "hero" that's you." Orion pointed to Jackdaw. "Is overcome with grief by the death of his friends that he committed suicide by drowning himself."

"Suicide? What?! Please no! There is no way I can kill myself, just let me live! I will tell everyone that I am coward and that I killed three of my friends! I am sorry!"Jackdraw screamed as he struggled to stand.

"I am afraid I cannot do that Jacky." Orion replied with a cold smile and pushed Jackdaw into the lake. As the screaming body sank deeper beneath the dark waters Orion whispered to himself. "I just don't think I can go through another army story, without hanging myself."

After checking to ensure that Jackdaw did not surface, Orion sat on the edge of the boat staring at the night sky and thought to himself. _I am going to_ _need a new dagger..._

* * *

A/N  
Nov 1st MAJOR GRAMMER FIXES! How is it that after I write 8 chapters I find all these mistakes!


	3. Laughing Coffin

**Laughing Coffin**

"Get out!"A large muscular man named Agil shouted angrily to the assassin. "I don't sell weapons to Orange players so that they can use MY WEAPON to kill!"

"Fine! I don't need your second grade butter knives any-ways " Orion replied sharply as he walked away from the Agil's shop and headed towards a nearby NPC vendor.

"Hello adventurer! Would you like to take a look at my fine wares?"

_At least you don't judge people by the colour of their cursor._ Orion thought bitterly as he browsed through the shop's inventory.

Sighing heavily Orion bought a [Rusty Iron Dagger] from the vendor, and just as he turned around to head to the town portal, he came face to face with a beautiful girl with relatively short brown hair, wearing an apron, holding a blacksmith's hammer.

Withholding the urge to say something some cliché line like "What's a pretty girl like you talking to an orange player like me." that would quickly land him in even more trouble, Orion ignored the girl and began walking to the town portal.

"Did you kill someone?" The brown haired girl named Lisabeth, who by then must have noticed the orange cursor, asked Orion after a moment of hesitation.

"Yes" Orion replied as he waved his fingers dismissively while he continued to walk towards the town portal.

_And I would have gotten away with it too if you hadn't pointed it out!_

Shocked to hear that someone would admit to murder Lisabeth took a step back, though she was safe inside the anti criminal zone of the town.

"Is that why you are looking for a new dagger? Because you killed someone with your old one?" The girl named Lisabeth continued to question Orion as she caught up and walked next to him.

"No it was used to save two players from being crushed to death by a giant tree!" Orion noticing the skeptical look on his companion quickly added.

"I am telling you the truth, now run along I don't have time for this. "

The girl ignoring his advice, continued to walk besides him and after a few moments of silence.

"So you saved the lives of two people and risked turning orange? That's a brave thing to do."

Orion remained silent and thought to himself. Sure why not, now go away.

The girl taking the silence as a confirmation of her theory continued to ask for details until she noticed the dagger. "You aren't serious about fighting with that… stick are you?"

"And I suppose you are a blacksmith with your own amazing dagger?" Orion remarked sarcastically. "Who is willing to part with it for a hefty sum to a player who cannot get any decent weapons because most blacksmiths are racist to Orange people?"

"Well… I haven't thought about the last part" Lisabeth blushed at the unexpected comment and accusation of her peers. "But yes."

Lisabeth opened her inventory and pulled out a long dagger called [Ivory Anelace], a pristine dagger that was as almost as long as a regular sword but slightly shorter with sharp edges on both sides.

"This is... beautiful... you have a gift " Orion muttered to himself as he examined the long bone colored dagger and its stats. "...this will go nicely with my other dagger." From the corner of his eye Orion could see Lisabeth's face redden as he continued to praise the dagger.

"Mind if I visit your shop if I ever need to buy more weapons?" Orion asked suddenly in midst of praising her work.

"Not exactly..." Lisabeth replied with a hint of embarrassment in her voice. "I been looking at a place in the 48th floor but I still need a lot more Col before I can buy the place."

Orion paused for a moment as various thoughts rushed past his mind, weighing the advantages and disadvantages of having a Blacksmith willing to make him gear. Coming to a conclusion he transferred half of his recent earnings to Lisabeth.

"Here's the money for your dagger" Orion said as he grabbed the dagger and stepped into the town portal without waiting for a reply. Looking back at Lisabeth, he cracked a smile and waved goodbye.

"I hope you get your shop, if there is too much money in there just remember to give me a discount when I visit your store later." As Orion disappeared into thin air, he saw the Lisabeth's face display a series of confused looks as she realized just how much he had paid for the dagger.

* * *

_What a nice girl._ Orion mused to himself as he strolled through the dark forest on 40th floor, only minutes after leaving the previous floor.

As he continued to follow the dirt trail that led him deeper into the forest, Orion double checked both of his daggers and the remaining duration of the antidote crystal. _Can't be too careful when meeting with other shady characters._

Immediately after finishing his thoughts Orion took a sharp right turn and came face to face with three players blocking the trail. Two of them with orange cursors cloaked in black rags, while the other was hidden behind them in a shadow.

"Ah it is about time you showed up, we sent that message hours ago Orion-kun."

Recognizing the two orange players as Johnny Black and Red-eyed XaXa from the laughing coffin, Orion returned XaXa's greeting with a mocking tone.

"Ah if it isn't Johnny bleak and pink eyed XaXa, didn't think the two of you had this much free time to see me, I am really flattered."

"Hehehe" Johnny Black giggled. "You want to play a game?" The cloaked killer spoke as he twitched uncontrollably from the excitement.

"No, no Johnny we are not here to make him beg for his life, remember what the PoH said." Red-eyed XaXa waved his [one handed Estoc] to his excited companion to calm him. "By the way, the boss says hello, and that if you ever get bored of solo life-"

"Huh, I didn't know PoH was interested in guys." Orion commented sharply as he cut off XaXa's offer. "Wait does that make the two of you his bitches?"

"Stop! Listen, if someone sees me talking to Orange players I ll be finished so let's get this over with."The third player named Kuradeel yelled as he stepped forward, away from the shadows. He was dressed in plate armor, with red and white stripes to indicate that he was a member of a guild.

_God I hope I don't become that hideous when I get that old._ Orion unconsciously took a step back as he saw Kuradeel's 'unique' facial characteristics.

"Why's the rat here?" Orion asked as he tried to remember where he had seen such stripes in the past.

"Because, there's been a talk about the clearing group forming a 'crusade', oohhhh scary." Johnny spoke with what Orion assumed was a sarcastic face behind the mask. "And some of our members have been supplying us with every detail."

"That's strange. The clearing groups are too busy leveling themselves to bother the likes of you. Did you fellows do something to upset them?"

"Well... a few days ago, one of players from the clearing group drowned." Xaxa commented with a hint of barely suppressed anger.

"That drowning? I read about it in the papers, what's so important about it?"

"Because! The two players that survived it kept chatting about how there was more to the tragedy and some disagreeable people got the idea that the Laughing Coffin was involved in the suicide! For once we did not..."

_I have to give credit to those two for figuring it out._ Orion thought about the two tankers as he pretended to listen to XaXa's rant about how the problem snowballed.

"...now, we already set up ambushes but PoH said it is gonna be costly and that we shouldn't risk a fight."

"This is all very interesting but why should I give a rat's ass about all this?" Orion smiled back politely as he studied and sized up three of his opponents.

"After all I am not a member of your mentally challenged group."

"Because if you do this then we will share what we know about the item you are looking for."

"I am not looking for anything, well maybe a dagger like [Mate Chopper] PoH has." Orion smiled coldly as he watched XaXa twitch at the mention of the PoH's cleaver.

"We know you are looking for the [Divine Stone of Returning Soul]." Kuradeel spoke bluntly trying to control the flow of the conversation away from topics that would trigger violent reactions from the group of killers.

Orion keeping his poker face, spoke with a uninterested tone of voice. "That sounds like an interesting item, but I am not really sure I need your information. If I am to take whatever this job is, I also want advanced payment in col as well."

"Done, we will give you the information and as for col." XaXa handed over fist sized gem to Orion. "Sell this."

Receiving the item with a polite smile on his face Orion asked. "Well, now that we got that out of the way, who's the lucky target?"

"There are two core players who are rallying the other green players, one is a beater nicknamed the black swordsman and-"

"You want me to kill him for you?" Orion said eagerly then regretted it moments later for being overenthusiastic.

"No, no a man of your 'skills', hehehe" Johnny giggled "should not bother with such a 'difficult' target. You are going after the 'easier' target, the guild leader of Divine Dragon Alliance."

_Same guild that was sent after the stone._ Orion thought. "Since you are asking a man of my caliber to take care of this, what's the catch? Why not do the jobs yourself?"

"Two reasons, first and most importantly, PoH made it clear that you are to tackle this one as you are not a member of the coffin. We want the killing to be as public as it can be so that they know it wasn't us and draw the blame to the red community in general rather than just us." XaXa said.

"Didn't know Coffin was so interested in maintaining a clean reputation."

"Secondly if you are killed we won't lose any sleep over it hahahahaha!" Johnny screamed in delight.

Orion with all his might managed not to punch Johnny in the face and mutilate his corpse.

* * *

37th floor outside the town where Divine Dragon Alliance headquarters was located, Sanitator dressed in his usual grey garments sat on the ground behind a bush with Orion.

"So are you actually going to do what those lunatics say? You know if you are short on cash, I could always lend you some, no need to work with those low life insects for money."

"No, no I am still fabulously wealthy from that Jackdaw job we did a week ago."

"Then why?" After a moment of silence Sanitator, shook his head. "Never mind I don't want to be any more part of this than I have to be. Look, they are coming what are you going to do?"

"Same thing I always do, smile and be polite to others."

Just over the bush where the two were hiding behind, three members of the Divine Dragon Alliance marched side by side along the main road leading to the hunting grounds.

Sanitator using his search skill muttered to Orion. "The guy walking in the middle must be Maximin, the leader, armed with a shield and a sword, and the guy on his left the big silent looking guy with a two hander would be the bodyguard."

"What about the guy on the right?"

"I don't know, he seems to be talking to Maximin, must be an officer, no one important. As for additional security, it seems no one else is following them, must be feeling pretty cocky about playing in the home field."

"Good wait here then take them out while they are distracted. After that you know what to do."

Sanitator nodded in acknowledgement as Orion slowly pushed his way past the bushes and stood in the middle of the road, waiting patiently with his hands checking his weapons.

"Hey Orange! What do you think you are doing here? Don't you know that you are in DDA territory?" The bodyguard shouted to Orion as he spotted the orange cursor.

"Wait, wait wait!" Using his best 'frightened player sound' Orion continued. "I am not here to hurt anyone! I want to join DDA, but I couldn't risk going into town because of my status. Listen I have some great gear and items that I'll pay with if you let me join."

Maximin shouted to Orion "Well then, we are always looking for qualified individuals to join our small band of group, but first we will have to do some testing."

"Lahmi here" Maximin pointed to his bodyguard. "Will be duelling you, and if you win I will consider letting you join and we will set the safety limiter at 25%."

Believing that he was far enough not to be overheard by the Orange player, Maximin whispered to Lahmi. "Once you beat the orange, force him to give you his gear. If he resists kill him."

The bodyguard nodded in agreement and challenged Orion to a duel with the safety limiter set at 25%.

Orion accepted the challenged and double checked his equipment as the timer began counting down to zero. He took his combat stance with the Anelace in his right hand stretched forward and slightly bent his knees like a fencer while keeping his left hand hidden carefully behind his body, equipped with a throwing knife in place of his parrying dagger.

Lahmi the bodyguard, drew his massive claymore and pointed it squarely at Orion. His eyes and posture oozing the years of experience of combating monsters he must have.

_It's a shame I am not a NPC._

As soon as the counter reached zero and the fight began, Orion sprinted straight towards Lahmi closing the distance between the two of them rapidly. Half way there he aimed and threw the throwing knife towards his opponent's head.

Seeing the blade fly straight towards him, Lahmi calmly lifted his claymore and successfully deflected the knife by using his sword as a shield, a move that completely blocked his vision in the process.

Realizing his mistake, Lahmi tried in vain to lower his sword but he was a second too late. Orion taking advantage of his blind opponent slid through the giant's legs while his dagger sliced right through the man's vital organs located between the two legs with great momentum.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH You little fuck!" Lahmi screamed in what Orion assumed was not a declaration of love and friendship.

"Relax, it's not like I really cut it off, besides even if I really did you don't need one here." Orion casually commented as he equipped another throwing knife in his left hand for a similar assault.

Taunted by the killer's words, Lahmi charged at Orion, this time with his claymore high up in the air glowing red with the sword skill Avalanche. "You little shiteater! You goanna die now!"

_I wonder what my face would look like if I took a direct hit from that._ Orion mused as he threw the throwing knife again, but this time sent the blade flying directly at the Lahmi's genitals. As the blade flew straight and true, Lahmi's expression changed from that of hatred to panic, until the blade landed squarely on its intended target.

Lahmi unable to overcome the pain crumpled onto the ground instantly and muttered unintelligible curses and moans.

Unconcerned with the pain his opponent was in, Orion calmly walked towards Lahmi and slammed his dagger into warrior's neck, scoring a critical hit, dropping his health well below the 25% limit and ending the duel.

As the words winner appeared over Orion's head, the bodyguard muttered "You. You are going to pay for what you just did." Orion in response simply slammed the dagger again at the exposed spot between the plates, and watched in silence as Lahmi's body exploded into thousand pieces and disappeared into thin air.

Finished with the duel, Orion turned his attention back to the two remaining DDA members. Both of whom had fallen straight into the ground kissing dirt, each with a poisoned throwing knife sticking out on their backs.

Orion casually walked over to Maximin and grabbed his head to make eye contact with the trembling guild leader.

"Hey, hey buddy... I am not going to going to hurt you." Orion cooed gently.

"N-no I don't believe you, y-you just killed one of my men!"

"That was an accident, I am sorry that you had to see that."

"No! You must be from the laughing coffin, sent to kill me."

"Why would the laughing coffin want to kill you" Orion painted a look of confusion on his face. "Listen I am not with them, I just want to ask you a single question."

Believing that the player in front of him just might not be here to kill him, Maximin visibly relaxed but continued to stutter. "W-What do you need to know?"

"Who was the beater that killed St. Nicholas during the Christmas event?"

"I-I think it was the... yes! it was the Black Swordsman!"

_Black swordsman?_ "Actual name?"

"Ki... Kiri... Kirito! That's it right? I am free to go right?"

"Of course." Orion gave Maximin a warm smile as his dagger slit the green player's neck and tossed the lifeless body to the ground and watched as it shattered into pieces.

Silently signalling Sanitator to deal with the sole survivor, Orion walked away from the scene of the crime whistling a joyous tune. _Kirito huh? Wonder where he is right now. Maybe the coffin knows._

Behind him he could hear the sound of his friend talking to the lone survivor. "Hey what you doing here buddy, sleeping on the ground. Poisoned huh? Al-right let me take you to town, you can tell me what happened once we get there."

* * *

A/N

Major Edit Nov 1st, God I hate my self for not finding all these mistakes earlier. Who knows how many more are just lurking beneath the surface!


	4. Black and White

**Black and White**

On 48th floor, Lisbeth's Special Weapon Shop stood next to a waterwheel that created tranquil noises as it turned lazily in tune with the game's BGM.

_I guess that's why this place cost so much._ Orion thought as a green cursor instead of his regular orange one floated on top of his head. _Perfect place to relax and enjoy the view._

Over the past few weeks after meeting each other, Orion and Lisbeth exchanged mails, at first it was about weapons and rare resources but as time went on their conversation had turned to something that resembled idle chatter.

Orion had come to this shop after receiving a mail from Lisbeth that she had bought her new store and wanted him to visit her store when he had a chance.

As he approached the shop with a bottle in his hands, he could hear the sound of two female voices coming from the shop.

"Like I said Liz, you should change your hair color to pink, it will suit you, now sorry to leave so quickly but I got to be at a meeting."

"Asuna I don't know-"

"Think about it." A long brown haired female player with matching eye color spoke as she opened the door, she was dressed in bright white but with small stripes of red running down her sides.

_She's a beauty... wait isn't that the same color of stripes on Kuradeel?_

Orion approached the blonde player with his polite smile drawn on his face. "Excuse me, yes hello there Miss. I recognize your guild color but not the name. Could be so kind and tell me what it is?"

"The Knights of the Blood" The blonde player responded back, her tone of voice conveying a surprise in that the player in front of him did not know anything about her guild.

"Ah thank you, much appreciated!" Orion shouted to the golden haired warrior as she walked past him without giving him another look.

_Knights of the Blood... isn't that a clearing guild?_ He pondered about its significance for a moment before dismissing the idea from his head as he opened the door.

With the ringing of bells announcing his arrival, he entered the shop surveyed the shop and found it a mess, everywhere in the shop there were various ores, bars and weapons scattered in random places.

_It is as if a small tornado had swept the store, _Orion mused as he stepped on a rapier and broke it in without even realizing. _I should drop by later and help clean this mess up before someone accidently dies by kicking a sword on the ground._

Lisbeth, unaware of her visitor or his latest crime committed in her store, was attempting to organize some of the items in the shop and stacking them in an orderly fashion.

"Hey Lisbeth!" Orion shouted across the Lisbeth. "I was just stuck in a game world created by a mad scientist and I happened to be in the neighborhood!"

"With a bottle of alcohol in your hand?" Lisbeth wearing her brown blacksmithing apron raised one of her eyebrows skeptically, as she stopped cleaning and turned to face him.

"Oh no no no!" Orion spoke while waving his index finger back and forth. "Due to the nature of the game, this is not a mere wine but a really great tasting grape juice with absolutely no alcohol."

After sitting down on a nearby table cluttered with junk, Orion uncorked the bottle and poured the contents of the bottle into the two glass cups he brought out of his inventory.

"You carry cups in your inventory?"

"Doesn't everyone?" Orion replied raising his own eyebrow. "Anyways that is beside the point. Here have a sip and tell me your thoughts." Orion handed Lisbeth one of the cups while he took the other.

"For this delicious grape juice!" Orion toasted to himself as he and Lisbeth each took a sip.

"Wow, this is really good stuff, where did you get it?" Lisbeth asked as she took another gulp.

"Well you see... there was this grape monster on the 34th floor... and when I slashed it with my dagger, it bled some dark liquid, and being a sucker for recycling, I took some of his blood into the bottle as he bled to death-"

"You are making me drink monster blood!?" Lisbeth yelled in fury as she slammed the cup down to the table.

Orion burst out laughing "Ha-ha you should see the look on your face Lisbeth. No, no the wine isn't from a big 'grape' monster, I made it from tiny regular size grapes."

Lisbeth flared up in mix of anger and embarrassment and glared silently at Orion.

Realizing that he may have crossed the line, Orion studied his right boot as if it was the most fascinating item in the world.

After a few moments of awkward silence Orion spoke cautiously, desperately trying to change the subject. "So uh... who was the customer that was in here before I was?"

"You mean Asuna? She's a friend... wait you don't know who she is!?" Lisbeth's tone returned to normal much to Orion relief.

"Should I know her?"

"Of course she is the sub leader of the Knights of the Blood!"

"Ooohhh fancy."

"She's a great person Orion, anyways what about you and Sanitator, how are the two of you doing?"

"Well, I haven't been really up to anything these last few weeks just loitering around hunting ground and sightseeing." He explained as and took another sip from the grape juice before continuing.

"But Sanitator seems to be doing rather well. In fact just yesterday he told me that he might be close to becoming a beast master."

"A Beast master? That's great!"

"Details are sketchy but I promise will tell you as when I hear from him next time."

Afterwards the conversation drifted between various subjects and the two chatted happily until a message arrived to Orion.

'We have a problem, come immediately, PoH wants to talk to you.' XaXa

Orion's face hardened and his eyes became dull and void of any emotion. "Sorry Lisbeth but something urgent came up, I will be back later."

"This is about work isn't it?" Lisbeth said after noticing the facial changes on Orion.

Orion's eyes snapped back to its previous state, but one filled with confusion. "How did you know?" he asked. _How much does she know?_

Lisbeth simply smiled with a knowing look and opened the door for Orion. "Don't worry I will be keeping the 'wine' safe until you come back."

"I am going to hold you to that" Orion said as he hastily stepped through the door but stopped for a moment before heading out. "By the way Lisbeth, I agree with your friend. You would look great with pink hair."

* * *

Arriving on the 43rd floor minutes later, at entrance of the Laughing Coffin's headquarters, a castle that looked as if it had jumped straight out of a fairy tale book. Orion pounded the solid wooden oak door and after a short pause, the door opened slowly and quietly.

"Expecting someone?" Orion spoke sheepishly as he pointed towards the dozen throwing knives pointed directly at him.

"Welcome to the laughing coffin's headquarters, don't just stand there come in, we are expecting other company." XaXa greeted Orion and gestured with his hand, next to XaXa was his ever faithful friend Johnny Black, who stood only a few paces away tinkering with his knife.

As Orion walked past the door, he saw a large rectangular shaped hall filled with busy orange players preparing for something and an empty wooden throne at the far end of the hall.

"This is nice but I am rather busy. You said PoH wanted to see me, so where is he?"

"As his 'bitch' I wouldn't know where the boss is right now but he's away on business."

_Somebody is holding a grudge._ "Alright Pink eyes, why am I really here then? I was just having a wonderful time drinking grape juice with a friend."

"To earn your pay of course."

"What pay?"

"Remember, how we asked you to remove the DDA's guild leader? Well it worked for a while but after clearing group still managed to rally around the black swordsman. "

"You mean you failed to kill him? Ha! what a shame that you couldn't kill a beater by yourself. Orion spoke with the most arrogant voice he could muster before continuing.

"By the way, if you really do remember our agreement, I still haven't been given the information. In fact I won't do anything until you can tell me the whereabouts of the black swordsman, who I believe has a good chance of having what I want."

"You are in luck then!" Johnny shouted across the Hall as he continued to play around with his knife. "Hehehe, the black swordsman, is part of the crusade that will be arriving to our base within minutes at midnight."

"What?"

"Surprised Orion? XaXa smirked, unable to hide his delight of shocking Orion.

"Shouldn't you guys be packing and getting ready to escape?" Orion asked, unable to understand why they would be so stupid.

"So we can avoid winning? No, we can win this and with the extra help, that's you in case you haven't noticed, it will be a child's play."

"And just when did I sign up for this!?" Orion spoke with his anger barely kept in check as his hands reached for his weapons.

*Boom* The entrance door shook violently, beyond it Orion could hear movements of various boots shuffling about and the sound of weapons being drawn.

"Just now."

*Sigh* "Do I have a choice?" Orion spoke as he stepped a few paces away from the entrance.

"No." XaXa replied with a polite smile.

A second later the door flew off and armed players spilled into the hall.

* * *

"CHARGEEEE!" A man clad in crimson plate armor screamed at the top of his lungs as he sprinted through the broken door followed by at least couple dozen players behind his back.

_Idiot _Orion thought as half dozen knives flew towards the crimson player who had just made a target of himself.

*Ping! Ping! Ping!* All six blades were deflected by the warrior's shield as he continued to bark out orders.

"Or not" Orion murmured. Turning his attention back to the rest of the fight that was unfolding before his eyes, Orion saw various poisoned knives landing on their mark but with no visible effect. _Of course! They must have used antidote crystals before marching in. _

"Orion!" A voice screamed for his his attention. "Stop standing there watching, we have guests!" XaXa yelled while fighting with a swordsman dressed fully in black.

Orion casually dismissing XaXa's demand to mingle with the guests, Orion quickly opened his inventory. Moments later a blue teleporting crystal materialized in his hands.

"Sorry XaXa but this isn't my fight, but good luck! I hope you make it out alive! Teleport Rindaasu!"

Orion with a smug smile on his face waited for the teleportation to take effect, but his view of the battle remained.

"Teleport Rindaasu...?" Orion repeated the words until he noticed that a rapier had pierced through his crystal, rendering it useless.

Focusing his attention back to the battlefield, he saw the same blonde haired girl that he had seen only hours ago, standing right in front of him holding the rapier that must have been used to pierce his escape plan.

"You!" Asuna said with a look of disbelief and anger as he recognized the stranger.

"And you!" Orion replied back cheerfully with a smile, while his mind swirled around trying to figure out another escape route.

Asuna not amused at Orion's attempt to buy extra time responded violently in the form of Flashing Penetrator a charging sword skill narrowly missed Orion but destroyed his outer brown cloak.

"Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Orion jested as he drew his [Ivory Anelace] and began to block or parry the hail of attacks she launched at him.

"Listen, why don't you go and help your friends while I make a quick get away?" Orion spoke after dodging another attack and pointed at raiders who were slowly being pushed back Orange players and were about to be scattered.

Asuna remained silent as her attacks became faster and merciless. Orion realizing that his opponent wasn't planning on leaving began scheming on how he could get away.

Seconds later when Asuna's sword glowed green as Star Splash, an eight-hit combo attack became imminent, he knew what to do.

Orion instead of blocking the attack side stepped the barrage and slid past her.

Smiling and knowing that Asuna would be unable to do anything until she finished the attack, Orion ran his dagger through her chest and dropped her health considerably.

Momentarily buying himself some time as Asuna used healing crystals, Orion signalled with his left arm to two Coffin members, who had just finished dispatching their own opponent.

Noticing his signal and seeing the opportunity to do a little bit more mayhem, the two rushed with their face bright with all the thought of all the fun they were about to have.

Orion only too happy to let the two of them take over, calmly stepped away from the duel and paced himself towards the broken door in mist of the chaotic battle.

After taking a few dozen steps, Orion looked over his shoulder to see if the two were still managing to delay the whitely clad player before they were slaughtered by Lisbeth's friend. But what he saw next was unimaginable.

A lone player dressed in black, the very same player who was battling XaXa in the beginning of the skirmish, jumped straight into the two attackers, knocking one of them out with his momentum.

The two orange players seeing a new threat had only moments to react. One managed to shout a short scream before his heart was pierced through by the dark blade and the other assailant joined his friend shortly after when his head was decapitated in a single stroke. Both of them disintegrated within seconds after their fatal blow.

The Black swordsman who Orion assumed to be Kirito, appearing unconcerned about the two people he slaughtered moments before, crouched next to his female friend then scanned the battlefield as if he was looking for someone.

_He better not be looking for me! Alright Orion ti__me to walk away a little bit faster. _Orion doubled his pace as he tried to avoid the monster's gaze behind him.

Unfortunately, for Orion escape was becoming more and more difficult as the Orange line was gradually shrinking.

While he was busy trying to escape, the orange players who despite the initial advantage by having no qualm about killing their opponents were pushed back by the level difference, with many being killed as they attempted to run. A general retreat of orange players that closed off various escape routes Orion had mentally planned out earlier. Forced to abandon the fastest way to escape, he spotted an exit on the corner of his eyes guarded by no one with sheer luck.

Seeing his chance, Orion quickly turned to only exit only to come face to face with the Black Swordsman, who stood several paces away with a blank face. Orion curious at what he saw, stopped in his tracks as he stared into the unknown, while ignoring small sane voice inside his mind that screamed at him to run, and was struck by what he saw inside those eyes.

_It's killer's cold and calculating__ eye__, one that just snapped out of control._

Before he could decide on his next course of action, another part of his brain screamed at him.

_Wait that's him! He has the stone! _Orion realized then another voice spoke._ But it is getting to dangerous. I have to leave right now! Shit shit shit!_

The Black swordsman, unaware of Orion's mental dilemma charged towards him as his sword glowed blue for a split second before the sword skill Rage Spike was casted.

Orion sidestepped the charge and saw Kritio flying right past him.

Unable to resist landing a cheap shot, Orion threw his throwing knife at Kirito's back and watched in amazement as the swordsman managed to weapon block and deflect the dagger with his sword only moments after finishing his skill.

_What? That's just not possible, no one is that fast_. No longer confident that he could easily best his opponent in combat, Orion quickly equipped his parrying dagger and looked around to see if there was any other possible escape route that still remained.

"It's no use, give up." Kirito spoke arrogantly or so Orion thought, as if he was reading Orion's mind. "Surrender, you won't make it to the exit and you are being surrounded as we speak."

Orion took a moment to compose himself and brought out his best lunatic voice. "HAHAHAHAHA but Black swordsman-sama if I surrender how shall I ever escape this-"

Without waiting for Orion to finish taunting him, Kirito charged once more with the sword skill Sonic Leap.

Recognizing that he would not be able to dodge this attack, Orion responded with a charge of his own but without any sword skills, to avoid being left vulnerable afterwards.

As the distance between the two grew smaller, Orion felt time slow to a crawl as he saw the black blade arcing its way towards his body.

In response Orion lifted his left hand and blocked the blade with his parrying dagger, and held it there while his right hand sent his Anelace straight to his opponent's heart that was left defenceless.

Confident that the Kritio would not be able to block his strike Orion smiled. _This won't kill you but, at least I will get past you to sweet freedom... and as added bonus it will hurt like hell._

Orion took a fraction of a second to look at the Black swordsman's eyes, anticipating panic and confusion to be present instead what he saw to his own surprise was curiosity and amusement.

In a flash, Kirito had drawn a second blade with his other hand that parried Orion's thrust and countered it with a swipe of its own.

Orion surprised by the second sword was a second too late and the blade sliced through his shoulder as he attempted to dive to the right.

Losing his balance, Orion crash landed and skidded across the floor, knocking down several coffin and raider members alike. After a short second to get his bearings, Orion quickly sprang back to his feet and tried to ready his weapons, but immediately stopped after seeing that there were dozens of weapons pointed directly at his face.

As Orion looked at wielders of these weapons it was evident that none were from the laughing coffin and that they weren't exactly pleased with Orion to just let him walk away.

"Good work Kirito-Kun! " The man in red, the same man who had managed to deflect all those daggers at the start of the skirmish, exclaimed with a grin. Who was now only carrying a single blade much to Orion's confusion

"And you..." The old man pointed to Orion. "you must be PoH. The leader of the laughing coffin!"

* * *

**A/N**

**11/2 Minor fixes**


	5. A Killer, an Old Man and a Comrade

**A Killer, an Old Man and a Comrade walk into a prison.**

Arriving at his destination late at night with the two heavily armed guards 'escorting' him, past the various damp and dark prison cells, Orion was shoved unceremonious into a cell.

"Welcome to your new home PoH! Hahaha." One of the guards said as he shut the bar behind him. "Psychos like you belong here."

As the two guards walked away from his cell, an old man dressed in rags appeared from the shadows and spoke to him. "Hello there cell mate, name's Zek a political prisoner!"

Orion replied merrily as he looked around the dark, damp and smelly cell. "Orion, an innocent player caught by a group of evil green players!"

"Haha boy there is no such thing as an innocent player." After a pause Zak continued. "And don't even think about escaping. You see all the guards that have orange cursors? Well if you try to escape, they are allowed to put you down regardless of your crimes."

"And no one cares that they do this? That's a surprise... coming from the army."

Zek not recognizing sarcastic tone of Orion's voice continued. "Ha! This is the army's private prison. All prisoners are guilty whether they know it or not."

"There are people on the outside, surely you can mail them and tell them what is happening."

"And they think they will believe you?" The old man commented with contempt and anger. "No most people think that people here are the most evil creatures that have ever walked the earth..."

The answer lanced through Orion. _They are right you know, some might consider me one of them._

"...and even if they cared about what happened to us, they couldn't help, so what's the point."

Tired from speaking, the old man laid down on his bunk and soon fell asleep without another word. Orion left to his own devices, sat and wrote a lengthy message to Lisbeth, explaining why he would not be able to visit her soon and narrated the events that occurred after leaving her shop, while omitting a few details and ended the message with _I be back before you know it._

Moments later a new message arrived from Lisbeth demanding to know why he was in prison. Orion unable to give an answer that would make her worry, ignored the message and joined the old man in his sleep.

* * *

The next day

"So, Orion why are you really in here for? I know that you are not innocent, you must have done something to land you here."

"I was at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Really? Me too." Zek sarcastically commented. "Care to elaborate?"

Orion winced in response and Zak noticing the small movement added. "Bad memories?"

"Humiliating memories." Orion replied as he relived the last moments fighting against the black swordsman Kirito.

"What about you Zek, you said you were a political prisoner, what did you do?"

"That's going to be a rather long story but hey we it is not like we are going places. Hmm I suppose I will have to start from the beginning. Before coming to this world, I was a professor and I didn't shy away from confrontations!"

Zek continued after a moment of pause as his mind relieved the life he once had. "Sadly that also meant I didn't know when to keep my mouth shut as I would later discover. After coming to this world, one thing led to another and I discovered that the army was extremely corrupt to the bone."

"That's hard to imagine." Orion with feigned surprise.

Zek, smiled back. "Only if you were blind like me. Anyways after learning that the army was going to collect taxes from the people on the first floor, the very ones who they had promised to liberate in the past! I got so angry at the army that-"

"You smashed down their banners, led an angry mob down the streets to burn down the army headquarters!" Orion exclaimed as his imagination ran wild.

"-that I spoke against them in public, preaching about the corruption and unfairness of the army." Zek spoke calmly, mentally dowsing Orion's theories.

"Don't get me wrong, I do like your radical ideas but talking is the most efficient way to change, violence should be used as a last resort."

_Violence is usually my first resort, something to keep in mind for the future I suppose. _Orion mused as he continued to listen.

"But that is not so relevant to our story. As I spoke against them and people, even some in the army itself, began to think about the problem but just as people were about to protest in mass, some army official invited me to discuss the problem and told me that he wanted to find a peaceful solution with me." Zek took a moment and snorted with laughter.

"So I went there all by myself with a naive mindset that I was really there just to talk. But once I got there, they just arrested me and told me that I was a charged with undermining the efforts of the ALA of clearing the game and next thing I know I was here rotting for six whole months."

"That's insane! They can't do that!"

"They can and they did." The old man spoke sounding a little defeated.

At that moment the bars opened and guard slid a tray with two wooden bowls.

The old man calmly passed one of the bowls to Orion while taking one for himself.

"Eat. This is the only meal we get today."

"What is this stuff?" Orion asked as he poked and ate the light brown mud that resembled someone's puke. "It tastes downright awful."

"Get used to it." Zek said with a hint of kindness. "This is what you are going to be eating for a long time. Speaking of which how long do you think you will be staying here?"

"I don't know, what do you mean how long?"

"Did they take you down for interrogation yet?"

"No, they brought me straight to here."

"Well they will come around to it sooner or later. For now let's stop this depressing talk, what's happening on the game itself? I haven't had single news about the outside world, since coming here."

"The game has now been cleared up to 60th floor. Wait you don't get to read papers down here?" Orion asked.

"Ha! No. Though I am surprised that you are even asking about that after seeing the quality of our food, as you can see they just feed us and keep us locked up in these cells until we serve our time."

*Bang* The door vibrated as the door was rattled by a guard with an grumpy expression. "Hey keep it down in there."

A thought appeared in Orion's head as he looked at the unhappy face of the jailer. "Hey Zek how corrupt did you say these army guys were?"

"Them?" The old man thought for a moment before he explained. "They would sell their entire family out if they could for tiny amount col. You see... most of the jailers down here were once squatters who spent all their money in the beginning of the game and were recruited by the Army."

"So, say Zek how much Col do you think it would take to bribe these guys."

Zek catching on to Orion's plan commented. "Why almost nothing at all."

Orion simply smiled and yelled for a guard.

* * *

For the next few days, Orion used a tiny portion of his vast fortunate and managed to bribe not only their cell guard but also the vast majority of the other jailers who came in for retinue inspection, into bring them whatever the two wanted.

It was not too difficult as the guards, who had been underpaid and poorly treated by the others in the army were only too eager to make some extra cash. Figuring that even if they were caught there wasn't anything worse that could happen to them.

On the 7th day of his imprisonment just as he was getting used to a life of luxury in prison. Orion woke to the sound of his cell door opening. Looking at the doorway he saw two new faces, two army officers to be exact. One was a bulky blonde man with the captain's insignia whose eyes looked like blocks of ice. Another was a silver haired women dressed similarly with a polite expression but by her sides was a menacing looking whip.

_I sure hope that they aren't here for some adult themed activity. _Orion thought looking at the whip as he gave Zek a nudge to wake him.

Meanwhile, the two officers looked around the cell and appeared surprised at all the luxury items like empty bottles, comfortable furnishing and newspapers that littered the floor.

"Who allowed these men access to all this?!" The man with the Captain's insignia yelled at the jailer in fury.

"I-I don't know Captain Noste, they must have had these when they first arrived here." The jailer lied as he pretended to be shocked.

"With today's newspaper! Do I look like an idiot?!" The captain shoved and knocked down the jailer and turned to his companion.

"Yulier! I want you to find out how this happened, and place one of your personal guard, a one you can trust here." Then Captain Noste returned his gaze back to Orion. "Orion! You! You are coming with me!"

Two guards materialized behind Noste as they forcefully dragged from Orion from his cell, glancing back he saw Zek's eyes that attempted to reassure Orion that everything would be fine.

"If I don't come back in 30 minutes send for backup!" Orion joked as he was dragged further away until he lost sight of the cell.

Coming around a corner and after passing a few more cells, Orion and his escorts arrived at a room with just two plain chairs and a rotten desk occupying it. Moments later he found himself sitting in one of the chairs with his arms and legs tied by a rope, Captain Noste sat across from him, but without any ropes tied to him.

"Alright Orion, despite Heathcliff's idiotic claims of you being PoH we know that you are not. But we are very interested in what you have done in the 43rd floor few days ago."

"I was exploring-"

Noste interrupted by slamming the table with his hand. "Bullshit! According to our reports you have been seen and even fought alongside the Laughing Coffin!"

"Hey now that was self defence, if I had known that a battle like that was going to take place I-"

Captain Noste rather than slamming the table again punched Orion in the face, his cursor turning orange."

"Surprised? Now listen carefully scum, I can make your life a living hell and frankly I do not really care what you did or did not do, the Aincrad liberation Force has already found you guilty and that is enough for me."

Captain Noste pulled out a form and puts it on the tabl.e "So make it easy on yourself and sign these confessions then we will be done here."

Orion cleared his throat and read the documents loudly like a boy practicing his public speaking.

"I Orion admit in fighting and killing fellow human beings while trapped in this world. I have committed these acts of murder as I have conspired to prevent the clearing of this game by the ALF. To accomplish my goals I have gathered with like minded individuals from the laughing coffin and we have managed to murder more than two hundred-"

"No, I refuse to sign this." Orion spoke dryly as he stopped reading the form.

Noste without hesitation threw and landed another punch on Orion's face.

"Does your boss know about your persuasive methods?"Orion commented cheerfully before receiving another blow from the fist as a reward.

"Maybe they do, maybe they don't. But how are you going to prove it when there are no bruises." Captain Noste replied as he gave Orion a cold smile.

"Last chance to sign while we are playing nicely." The captain spoke dangling the confession form in front of Orion.

Smiling back to his interrogator, Orion spoke arrogantly. "Please go and kill yourself while 'I' ask nicely."

"I guess we are going to have to do this a little bit more difficult." Captain Noste said as he opened up his inventory and pulled out a butter knife.

"Ohhh a butter knife" Orion glanced at the knife and spoke in a mocking tone. "I am sorry Cap but I didn't get anything for you-"

With glint of insanity in his eyes, the Captain ran Orion through with his butter knife.

" Uggh!" Orion involuntarily screamed shocked by the butter knife attack.

"Oh? Did that hurt?" Captain Noste said as he jabbed once more and in response Orion groaned quietly.

"You want to tell my bosses now!?" Noste asked Orion in a demanding voice.

Orion unable to hide his amusement laughed out aloud. "Of course! Haha! You are using a butter knife to torture people! I bet its real effective against butter!"

"Fucking Lunatic." Captain Noste murmured to himself as he activated his sword skill Star Splash and repeatedly stabbed Orion.

As his view turned red, indicating the low health, Orion opened his mouth to give his interrogator a piece of his mind before he died, but found himself drinking a bitter tasting low quality healing potion instead.

"Don't worry Orion, I won't let you die... yet." Noste said as he poured the contents of the potion and continued after pouring the last of the liquid. "As you can see, I have all day to make your life a living hell, so if you want me to stop just sign the god dam confession!"

"But mommy told me not to sign confessions given by strange man."

Ignoring the sly comment, Noste slashed Orion across the chest with the butter knife bringing him close to death once more and readied for another blow but was disturbed by a guard knocked the door and entered the room.

"Captain Noste sir! General Thinker wants to talk to you!"

"Not now, we are in the middle of an interrogation-"

"More like torture!" Orion shouted out as his vision once again returned back to normal.

"Shut it prisoner!" Noste in fit of anger smashed the knife into the table before turning his attention to the guard.

"Sir, General says this is urgent."

*sigh* "Fine, you" Noste gestured to the other guard. "escort Mr Orion to an isolation cell, we will finish this later."

Taking the small window of opportunity, Orion picked up the butter knife embedded on the table and stashed it inside his inventory without anyone realizing it. _At least I can spread butter now 'if' I get any butter._

"Come on, time to go prisoner " The guard said as he untied Orion's bindings and carefully escorted Orion to a new cell with a pike aimed at his back.

* * *

Once arriving at the isolation cell, the guard opened the cell door and shoved Orion into the cell, locked the bars and stood in a corner few feet away standing watch like a statue.

"From frying pan and to an inferno." Orion murmured to himself as he sat down on a damp dark corner of his cell and opened his mail box. Inside was a mail from Lisbeth, but instead of the usual carefree conversation that filled it, the letter only had a single line.

_I met PoH. He told me everything._

With that single line, Orion's mind drew a big white blank as his brain simply gave up trying to understand what that meant, while the smaller voices inside his head began questioning everything.

_What did he tell her? Everything? What does PoH know? Why would Poh talk to her? Wait she knew I had work, on the day of the ambush, how did she know? Did PoH tell her about that as well? But if he did why would be let his guild be raided-_

To calm himself, Orion used last of his willpower and kicked the metal bars keeping him hostage. With a loud clang the metal bar vibrated and the message [Immortal Object] appeared briefly before disappearing. As he pieced together parts of his mind Orion began to analyse his current situation.

_First thing is first, I need to get out of this sandbox and talk to Lisbeth before comrade Noste decides it's time for another interrogation._

_Let's see I have a useless butter knife that will be as threatening as a stuffed teddy bear, a door that is locked... I got no keys... can't break the door down... in a cell with no guards... wait what? Guards! That's it!  
_

Orion schemed and formulated his plan into action, he opened up his inventory and pulled out a recording crystal and whispered quietly into it. Afterwards Orion picked up several small stones littered on the ground.

With a careful aim, Orion threw a single stone at the guard's helmet.

"Ow!" The guard involuntarily cried out as his helmet vibrated with the impact. With a mad look in his face, the guard glanced towards Orion's cell angrily.

Unable to resist, Orion threw another stone with a smile and giggled as the guard's helmet vibrated once more.

"Shut up!" The guard said manacling as approached the bars. "If you do that one more time you are not getting any food!"

"But we don't need food to survive here..." Orion pointed to his arm, "We get all our daily nutrition from here haha." and threw an empty glass bottle that he had been hiding in his inventory as he disappeared into the shadows inside the cell.

The bottle flew right through the bars and smacked the guard in the face, exploding at impact.

"That's it, you are dead!" The guard fumbled with his keys as he unlocked the door and in his haste left the keys still on the lock hole as he rushed into the dark cell.

Once inside, Orion's voice whispered silently to the guard. "Oh no! Scary guard here to teach me a lesson! But you can't seeee meeeee."

The guard annoyed by the voice walked towards the source of the sound and stepped deeper into the cell.

"Getting warmer... hot! You are so close!" The voice continued to mock the guard as he readied his weapon, preparing to thrust his spear into the dark corner from where the voice was coming from.

Just as he was about to teach the prisoner a lesson, a loud metallic sound echoed behind him. Surprised by the sound the guard turned around and to his amazement saw the prisoner smiling on the other side of the bar.

Orion gasped mockingly "Who would lock up a hard working citizen like you! Stay here for a bit I will go have a little chat with your superiors at once and sort this mess out!"

"What how?!" The guard yelled visibly confused and turned around and found a recording crystal on the ground.

"Oh you found that huh? No, no I insist you keep it, so that you can remember me by it. Do not worry my love! I shall return swiftly to rescue you from your imprisonment! Hahahahaha" Orion exploded into laughter as he ran through the hallway.

"You fucking little shit when I get my hands-" the sound of the upset jailer died down as Orion navigated through the prison cells.

* * *

After a few minutes of sprinting and hiding between the shadows until he arrived at his old cell. Opening the cell door with the keys he had just taken, he stepped in and saw the old man sitting comfortably sipping a beverage while reading a newspaper.

"Hey Zek, long time no see."

"Orion? How did you get in here."

"I used these." Orion smiled as he jingled the keys. "Where's the whip lady and her friends?"

"I don't know the Officer and the guards disappeared after minutes you left and none of them have been back since."

"That's a shame I wanted to see the whip in action, by the way I am going outside, you want to come with me and explore the great outdoors?"

"Ha! I always knew you were resourceful but no thank you Orion. My sentence will be over tomorrow and I'd be a fool to escape now wouldn't I?"

Orion placed the palm of his hand flat across his face and spoke dispirited. "Zek you know you could have told me this before I came to rescue you..."

"Sorry Orion, but this princess does not need to be rescued." The old man wisecracked with a happy expression on his face.

Beyond the cell, the sound of guards rushing through the hall clanking their plate armor echoed as they sprinted in every direction trying to find the escaped prisoner.

Orion sighed deeply. "Suit yourself Zek, I would love to stay and chat but well you know the rest."

"Stay safe!" Zek yelled after Orion as he sprinted through the dark hallway.

"Enjoy your last day in prison old man!" Orion yelled back as he headed towards the stairs to freedom with dozen guards hot on his heels.

* * *

Edit: 11/1 Minor grammar fixes,


	6. A Player Who Cried Blacksmith

**A Player who cried Blacksmith.**

"Get that son of a bitch!" Captain Noste screamed as he rode a chestnut horse through the forest chasing after the fugitive, behind him was several other mounted players of the army trying to run him over.

_Dam dam dam!_ "You know captain! This is the part where I escape successfully!."The fugitive shouted back to him.

"Not on my watch! Nobody escapes from black Iron Castle! Captain Noste yelled out not one but two cheesy quotes together.

"We aren't even on it anymore!" Orion screamed as poisoned knives flew past him.

"Shut the fuck up and give yourself up!"

After escaping his cell and exiting the prison itself, Orion had an easy time eluding the guards on foot with his ridiculously high dexterity stats. However, the army with their mounted division had now caught up with him.

Seeing that he would be unable to outrun the horses in a straight path, Orion jumped into the forest as another knife narrowly missed him.

Once entering the forest, he moved left and right trying to zigzag his way past the forest. One by one, the horseman inexperienced with their mounts and navigating through a thick forest fell off their saddle by hitting a large branch or crashing into a tree.

Grinning and thinking that all the riders have fallen off, Orion looked over his shoulder and saw Captain Noste still riding towards him and closing the gap.

"You think a forest is going to stop me?! I rode horses for a living!"

_A cowboy? That would explain his inappropriate use of the butter knife... no wait it doesn't._ Orion thought as he took a sharp turn around a tree and exited the forest and arrived at a road leading straight into a small village.

Seeing his chance, Orion sprinted as fast as he could towards it, moments later Captain Noste exploded out from the bushes with a sword in his hand as he rode towards Orion like death on horseback.

After several seconds the gap between the two closed quickly and Noste gloated "Good bye Orion! Next time remember that horses are faster than your legs!" as he brought down his sword for a killing blow.

Orion seeing the blade coming down grinned back at the captain and stopped in his tracks.

The blade sliced right through Orion like fatal blow but instead of harming him, the strike merely produced spray of purple sparks. Unable to comprehend what just had occurred, Captain Noste had mere moments to ponder before his horse, which had been galloping in full speed, crashed into Orion and disintegrated by the effects of the Crime Prevention Code inside the village.

With the disappearance of his horse and the momentum he had gained while chasing after the fugitive, Captin Noste became airborne as he flew across the small village and head butted the statue in the town square, where he laid still.

_Ouch_ Orion winced as he watched the tragic flight. Confident that he had effectively eluded his pursuers, Orion walked into a nearby general store and purchased a teleporting crystal. After mumbling a few words he disappeared, just as Captain Noste recovered from his accident and screamed bloody murder.

* * *

Materializing on the 48th floor, Orion eventually arrived at Lisbeth's store after avoiding additional army patrols.

As he approached the house with the waterwheel turning, he opened the door and as the bells heralded his grand entrance, he saw a beautiful girl in pink hair sitting behind the counter.

"Liz? Did you dye your hair while I was gone?" Orion grinned at the beautiful girl as he approached the counter.

In response Lisbeth ran up to him and they both gave each other a hug.

_So far so good, right? Didn't feel any knife going through me._

"Are you alright? I was so worried that you might not be here again."

Keeping his smile. "Well I am here now, besides as interesting prison was, there was no one half as intelligent as you are."

After seeing Lisbeth slightly blush at his comment Orion Choose his next words carefully.

"So what was the last mail about? Whose PoH?" Orion lied and added with a cocky smile. "Should I be going off and challenging him to a duel?"

Lisbeth gave Orion I know you are lying look. "A random stranger came to me and told me that if I sent you that message you would be out of jail the next day or the very day you read the message."

_Clever bastard, reading me like a book_. "Random stranger?" Orion asked skeptically. "Come on Lis, he must have at least told you something else or his name-"

"Nope nothing else, that was all he told me." Lisbeth said with an almost unnoticeable twitch. Orion taking it as a sign that she was lying, was just about to what she was hiding until her next words stopped him in his tracks.

"Speaking of strangers... do you care to explain why a random stranger that looked a lot like you were spotted fighting against Asuna on the day of your arrest?"

"I-I-I am sure s-she must be m-mistaken." Orion stuttered unintentionally as his mind whirled with excuses and half baked lies.

"Is she now?" Lisbeth spoke with a calm voice but with a hint of something else behind it.

"Asuna said that someone," she looked into his eyes as she spoke. "was dressed fully in brown and holding an Ivory Anelace one that looked very similar to my own work."

"That... might have been me." Orion confessed with a dumb look on his face as he just stood there as waiting to be brutally murdered and with his body nowhere to be found.

Noticing and taking a small delight at his reaction. Lisbeth continued. "But she also told me that you were only trying to escape... until you tripped and knocked down half the people there."

_Seriously tripped? I rolled on purpose to dodge an incredibly fast attack!_ was what Orion wanted to say but he held his tongue and put on his best I am sorry expression with puppy eyes.

As if reading his mind and not his face Lisbeth patted Orion on the head. "I have a feeling that you are not so sorry about Asuna... but I will forgive you."

Relieved Orion let out a big sigh "Thank you."

"So why are you holding a butter knife?" She asked noticing the small knife attached to his belt. "Where is the rest your equipment?"

"Down in the black iron castle, the army took all my gear including our anniversary dagger."

"Our what?"

Orion gasped dramatically and pretended to be shocked that she had forgotten. "You know I was wondering the streets, getting tossed out by racist shop keepers until you came along and asked me personal questions followed by an extortion in which I ended up with your fine dagger."

"Oh that dagger, don't worry about it, I am sure you can make something better." Lisbeth spoke with a coy smile on her face.

"What?"Orion blurted out thinking that he had heard it wrong.

"You know with Slash Weapon Forging?"

"What?" He said with a little bit more surprise and frown on his face.

"I want you to come and work with me." Lisbeth spoke plainly hoping that Orion would be able to understand.

"What?" Orion uttered the same word once more, his mind no longer capable of understanding any words.

Lisbeth gave Orion a pitiful look and shook her head "Recently work has been piling up and I could use an extra hand or two and I want you to stay here with me and work for me." and added with a worried look on her face. "It will also let me keep an eye on you so that you don't land in prison again."

"Lis, I promise I won't get arrested, though I may pay social visits once in a while." Orion grinned at Lisbeth's worried face. "Besides, I don't have any blacksmithing skills, its not like I am going to drop my skills or anything."

* * *

A week later.

"So! You dropped your Searching 'and' Listening for Metal Refinement and Slash Weapon Forging?! Have you gone completely insane?" Sanitator yelled at Orion with all the fury his mouth could spew.

Orion carrying a bag full of ores in one shoulder and a dead monster corpse on the other replied meekly with an apologetic face. "I am sure it will pay off, after all what's wrong with taking a different profession."

"I've seen your 'knife'." Sanitator spoke in a concluding tone as he glanced at the poorly made dagger that looked like it was ready to fall apart at any minute.

"It's my first work! I will get the hang of it sooner or later" Orion grumbled quietly as the two humans exited an abandoned mine, that was filled with high leveled monsters and high quality ore.

Once they were safely outside the dungeon Sanitator spoke again but in a much calmer voice.

"Listen Orion it's nice that you are giving up killing on a philosophical level and that you are really into your lady friend but you do realize that she will eventually figure out that you aren't exactly the innocent pure hearted child you paint yourself to be right?"

"I am just taking a break from the business and it wouldn't matter anyways. I think she already knows."

"WHAT? You told her!? Does she even know how many people would love to kill you and dance on your grave?"

"No I didn't tell her, I said she probably knows" Orion replied . "Besides I doubt I am on anyone's radar these days. It has over two months since my last job with the coffin."

"Really, is that so? On top of my head at least two clearing guild wants you dead, and the countless orange players who want to impress the laughing coffin by killing you?!" After a short pause, Sanitator brought forth his last condemning evidence as if it was an afterthought.

"Oh and let's not forget the fact that the army is after your sorry ass." Sanitator said with a mocking voice as he dangled the wanted poster in front of Orion's face.

"Relax buddy, the army will never find me... I look nothing like that." Orion commented as he looked at a skinny man dressed in brown rags._ I am not that skinny, a little bit more muscle here and there and I am clearly wearing better clothes-_

"This is a screen shot genius, you look exactly like that." Sanitator said with a condescending tone of voice as he crumpled and tossed the wanted paper into a bush. Behind him his small companion sniffed the crumpled ball once before continuing to follow the two humans.

Sanitator sighed. "Why do I even bother, listen I will try to make sure that people forget about you, so do me a favor and keep a low profile and behave yourself, while I go and do this now."

"Don't you want to come into the shop for a little food and drink? I got the ingredient right here." Orion said as he gestured to the corpse of the monster he had killed inside the dungeon.

"Why are you still lugging around a corpse? And shouldn't it have disappeared when you killed it?" Sanitator asked curiously as he took a jab at the corpse.

"I don't know might be a bug." Orion said scratching his head. "But I am sure I can make a meal out of it somehow."

"Well as much as I would enjoy having some good food and watching you carve up a bugged npc... I am a little swamped with work thanks to one of my friends quitting on me." Sanitator said in a tone of voice that screamed his disappointment.

Ignoring the subtle clue Orion asked again."You sure? Liz would love to see the little puppy that you are raising." Orion said as he lifted the beagle pup with his hands up to his face and spoke "'Of course Orion, I would love to come, Sanitator is just jealous that you were able to get a stable job in this tough economy.'"

"Put her down Orion." Sanitator said with a hint of annoyance. "She is not a puppy, Stern is a tracking hound, very useful in tracking people like you down." With a grin he added. "Absolutely makes hiding useless, though she does sometimes lead me to some mushrooms for some strange reason."

"Maybe she wants to have some mushroom soup for a change, instead of the boring chow you give her every day.

* * *

After saying his farewells to Sanitator and his furry companion, Orion entered the shop and saw to his delight that there were no customers waiting for him.

With a smile he lugged the ores he had mined to the work shop behind the store and threw them next to a furnace while dumping the monster corpse on a nearby table as he wondered just what exactly he should do with a bugged creature.

Hearing the door open and the jingling bells he simply shouted "Liz! I am in here if you need anything." as he continued to ponder what to do with his kill.

Behind him he could hear footsteps then the sound of the work shop door opening. Expecting it to be Lisbeth he turned towards the source of the footsteps he came face to face with a very familiar looking blond girl.

Just as he was about to ask her if they had met before, he found a sharp rapier pointed squarely at his neck. "You!" Asuna said as she held her rapier at him.

"And you!... Hold on a sec didn't we do this before?" Orion said as he raised both his arms to show that he didn't mean any harm.

"What are you doing with that corpse!?" Asuna questioned Orion.

"What! I am trying to eat it. I just killed!" Orion blurted out then realized he may have dug his own grave and added. "Wait! Wait that came out wrong I work here!"

"You work here?" Asuna asked skeptically, gesturing to the corpse. "This is a blacksmith's shop! Not some sick twist-"

"Yes, Yes I know but I really do work here with Liz"

"I don't believe you." She replied back as her sword turned green.

"No really!" Orion yelled, trying to convince his assailant of his innocence.

Hearing door open and the bells chiming once more, Orion shouted across the store. "Liz! Help!"

Perhaps hearing hid desperate plea for help, Lisbeth soon appeared at the door of the workshop and asked. "Asuna what are you doing pointing a rapier at Orion?"

"He... Orion?" She spoke with a confused look.

"That's me." Orion said relieved to hear that he was not about to be sliced through the neck.

"S-Sorry I thought he was..." Asuna mumbled as she tried to remember exactly what he was doing.

"Preparing a nutritious meal?" Orion answered as he continued to stare at the rapier that was inches away from his neck.

* * *

After the other two absolutely refused to eat what Orion had brilliantly prepared with the corpse of the bugged NPC, calling it disgusting and immoral. The brilliant chef was forced to dig through his inventory and found some food he had made long ago but had long forgotten about.

_Thank god food here doesn't go bad, or I would be in the woods right now looking for another sacrificial lamb._

Placing the various foods down on the table, and encouraging the other two to eat. Orion began telling Asuna about his odyssey after his arrest and how he had ended up working 'with' Lisbeth.

"So that's how I came to work in these horrid conditions." Orion joked as he finished telling his tale and added as an afterthought.

"By the way you still owe me for that teleport crystal you broke, and also for the fact that thanks to you and Black I got thrown in prison, until my innocence was proven and I was released-"

"Released? I saw the wanted posters Orion-kun." Asuna said with a skeptical tone of voice.

Coughing deliberately Orion commented. "Well there might be some misunderstandings but it doesn't change the fact that I was innocent."

After a moment of silence Asuna asked pointing at the delicious but unidentifiable dish. "So Orion-kun what are we eating right now?"

"I wish I could tell you but my cooking is mostly limited to burning and chopping... you could say that I am not very good at knowing what I actually cook or how." Orion replied feigning an apologetic smile as he watched the elements of horror appear on the face of his guest.

"But!" Orion spoke proudly with a grin. "If you are interested I do have extensive knowledge on how to make delicious beverages, in fact... have I told you that the beverage you just drank is made from monster blo-"

With a glare from Lizbeth's eyes, Orion stopped in middle of his inappropriate joke.

Coughing once more as if he had attracted a terrible disease, he paused for a moment and asked the question that has been on top of his head all day. "So Asuna, I have to ask. Why haven't you turned me in and let the army arrest me?" Not that you can.

*Sigh* "because as much as I hate to admit it, you don't seem like a member of the laughing coffin and they are the only ones we are really after."

"Was it my innocent smile that convinced- OW!" Orion yelped as his left foot was smashed with a small hammer by Lisbeth.

"I mean thank you for understanding."Orion said after glancing at Lisbeth.

"Thank you." Lisbeth echoed.

Leaning in towards Lisbeth, Orion whispered. "You can't rely on violence to change the way I talk- aaaahhhh" and cried in pain as she pulled his earlobe as hard as she could.

Afterwards Orion chose his words carefully and behaved while other two chatted happily for what seemed like days.

Finally, just as the sun was about to go down Orion had lost all hope of being released, Asuna thanked them both for the meal and headed towards the town portal.

Lisbeth and Orion stepped outside the shop and watched as Asuna walked away.

"I guess I was wrong, I was pretty sure she would turn me over." Orion said to Lisbeth.

"Asuna is a kind hearted person. She would never harm an innocent person." With that said they both smiled and held hand each other's hands as they watched Asuna disappear beyond their view.

Breaking the peaceful and loving moment Lisbeth asked Orion."You do know that there is a corpse on my work bench right?"

"I ll ditch the body in the woods tonight." Orion replied back as they both stood there watching the sun go down.

* * *

The next day

_She should have used the NPC clerk but noooo 'Why use a NPC when you can charm customers with your smile'._ Orion thought as he sat behind the counter with a bored expression, with his left hand held his head in place as he tried not to fall asleep.

_What's taking so long, I thought blacksmith's special event would have finished by now..._ Just as his consciousness began drifting into a deep sleep, he was awakened by the sound of the store bells ringing.

_Ah a customer!_ Putting on his best con man face, Orion stood up from his chair and in his in full view was the Kirito, the black swordsman.

His hands unconsciously slid down to check his weapons. _Old habits die hard I guess._

"Excuse me! Yes you there the goody goody clearer wearing a black overcoat, how can I help you today?" Orion asked mockingly.

Seeing Orion, the customer's hand went straight to his sword. "Why are you in this store? What did you do with the owner?" Kritio demanded with a hostile voice.

_Why does no one believe that I work here?_ Orion thought as he remembered the conversation yesterday with Asuna.

"Listen I just had a very similar conversation with your girl friend Asuna-san yesterday-"

Hearing the name, Kritio reacted and the next thing Orion knew was that he was on the ground with Captain Noste's butter knife blocking Kritio's sword from slicing him in half.

_Good thing I begged LIz to reinforce this until it became nearly indestructible or I would be served as a sashimi right now._

"God what is it with you people and pointing swords at me! She is fine! She just came yesterday to ask me some questions." Orion protested as he struggled not to be murdered in broad daylight.

Visibly relaxing but still pointing his weapon, Kritio asked. "How did you escape black iron castle?"

"I was innocent and a kind guard opened a door for me... also I may have made some promises with him that I won't keep."

"You bribed the guard?"

"Yes but not him." Orion explained with all the honest bone in his body. "Look it's a really long and complicated story and to tell it properly I can't be on the ground with a sword pointing at my neck."

"I don't believe you. No you are going back to prison." Kritio said with a determined voice.

At that moment Lisbeth walked in with a bag full of ingots and weapons. "Orion! What are you doing on the floor?"

"Would you believe me if I said I tripped and fell?" Orion said innocently with a sheepish smile.

* * *

"So that's what has happened yesterday." Lisbeth explained to Kritio about yesterday's event. "and then you came in and did the exactly the same thing. Except that Orion was on the floor this time fending you off with a butter knife."

Nodding along, Kritio with a understanding face said. "If Asuna said he was innocent then I believe her."

"What! You believe what she tells you but not me?!" Orion cried out suddenly and knocked down his chair as he stood with disbelief. "I was an innocent victim of this whole tragedy!"

"Then how did an innocent bystander find the laughing coffin's headquarters and not be killed for trespassing." Kritio asked in flat voice.

*cough* "That's a good point." Orion said as he sat down quietly and pretended that nothing had happened.

Shaking her head, Lisbeth turning her attention back to Kritio and asked."So Kritio what brings you to our shop?"

"I need to place an order for a custom made sword, and I heard you were the best..."

_Of course she is! She just made a butter knife strong enough to block your weak attack!_ Orion screamed inside his mind as kept his poker face.

"...and I need a sword that is as good as this." Kritio stated as he placed a black blade in front of her. The very same sword he used on Orion on the day of the raid.

"Why do you need a second sword anyways? Don't you have that other one? You know the one that you sucker sliced me with?" Orion asked bitterly and saw Kritio freeze up as he pretended to ignore his questions.

"What are you talking about?" Lisbeth whispered to Orion while looking at Kritio's face.

"When I was uhh 'defending' myself, he used two swords on me instead of one, probably some sort of extra skill that no one knows about." Orion whispered back and quickly added. "I wouldn't have lost if he didn't cheat with it."

"Don't you use two daggers yourself?" Lisbeth asked raising one of her eyebrows.

"That's different!" Orion replied back in a slightly higher volume.

Lisbeth, ignoring Orion's defense of the events, picked up Kritio's sword and checked its stats. "This is a monster drop and a great one at that..."

After a short pause she explained. "Normally I would offer you my best work but... Orion damaged it beyond repair when he came to visit a few months back."

"I did?" Orion asked, unable to remember the rapier ha had accidently stepped on.

Once again ignoring Orion, Lisbeth continued. "So are you sure you don't want any other sword? They would be much more economical than a custom sword."

"No I am afraid not and money is not a problem."Kritio responded.

Exhaling loudly, Lisbeth turned to Orion. "You know how I told you about the The Metal a few days ago."

"How could I forget? You almost sent me there to find it." Orion said remembering the fool's errand that she tried to send him on.

"and now you are going to go there and find it by yourself." Lisbeth finished.

"Whhhat?!" Orion looked at Lisbeth with disbelief. "Liz! This guy tried and failed to kill me twice, now you want me to go and fetch him a material that might or might not exist so that you can make a better weapon for him try killing me for the third time?!"

"That sounds just about right." Lisbeth said with an evil grin. "But I am sure that you can fend him off, now that you have your old dagger back." Lisbeth reassured Orion as she handed him an Ivory Anelace.

"When did you get this?" Orion asked while touching the dagger and making sure that it was really his.

"I bought it off from the army yesterday while you were being threatened by Asuna."

Seeing that he had no other options, Orion folded. "Fine I ll go, but I want black here to come with me in case I need to use him as a human meat shield."

For the first time since meeting Orion, Kritio cracked a smile.

* * *

EDIT: 11/2 Grammar


	7. Once Upon a time

**Once Upon a Time In Aincrad**

West Mountain 55th floor.

*Ah a CHOO* Orion sneezed loudly as he tightly clutched his brown overcoat and the large woolen scarf. _No wonder Lis didn't want to come here, this place is like Siberia._

Looking next to him at Kirito who was wearing his rather thin black coat, Orion cursed to himself. _Did his brain go numb from the cold?_

"Hey!" He shouted to Kirito over the screaming wind. "I am not carrying you back to the shop if you drop on me! You can actually die in the game if your body temperature drops too much."

With a smug smile Kirito replied "It's all a matter of willpower."

Orion mentally resisted the incredible urge to punch the Kirito squarely in the face with all his might.

"I already don't like you that much, Kirito-kun... no need to try harder." Orion replied as politely as he could while controlling his rage.

Arriving at their destination at what looked like a field of large crystal formation. Kirito turned to Orion. "Hey be prepared to use the teleporting crystals."

"I am pretty sure I can handle myself." But being paranoid about safety, Orion did what he was told.

"Also, it'll get dangerous from here on out, so it would be best if I continued on alone. Once the dragon appears, just hide behind that crystal pillar over there." Kirito said.

Orion responded by simply giving Kirito a one finger salute and walked into the crystal formation. "Faster we do this, faster I get to get back to the shop and forget that I am on this goose chase!" He shouted back as he walked deeper into the crystal fields.

As stepped into the middle of the field he saw the ground in front of him vibrate violently.

Kirito standing Orion, drew his sword and Orion followed by drawing his Anelance and the butter knife.

With a large boom, the ground cracked and shards flew in every direction, as a white dragon made its appearance. Orion who stood in front of Kirito found himself with shards sticking out of his body like a pin cushion.

While his companion was silently cursing, Krito propelled himself on the crystal pillars and sliced the dragon in mid air.

Seeing the black swordsman dealing with the dragon effectively, Orion took a step back, equipped his throwing knives and patiently waited as Kirito continued to slash the dragon whenever it flew low.

Once the Dragon's health reached 10% and dwindling, Orion lined up a shot with the airborne target. The White dragon, perhaps sensing that he was about to die, darted straight towards Orion with its wings flapping.

With all of his concentration focused on the dragon, Orion activated his Blade Throwing skill Multi shot and threw three throwing knives at between the eyes if the dragon.

The three blades flew in succession and all of them landed squarely on the dragon. In agony, the dragon roared one last time before it began skidding towards him at an alarming speed, as it crash landed.

Unable to move after using a powerful skill through the system assist, Orion stood motionless as the dragon's almost dead body rushed towards him.

Not noticing the sharp crystal formation behind him, Orion stood confident that the boss would merely crash into him and push him back a few paces.

Kirito seeing the danger, lunged at Orion and collided with him in mid-air and sent both of them spiralling to the side, sparing Orion from being impaled on large crystals. Just in time as the dragon itself impaled itself on the crystal and exploded.

"What- What the fuck are you doing?" Orion yelled and closed his eyes in mid air as he braced himself for the impact.

"I just saved your life!" Kirito replied as the two continued sail through the air.

"What?" Orion muttered his final words until he realized that they had been airborne for quite some time. Opening his eyes he saw that they were now free falling into a gigantic hold on the ground.

"FUUUUUUUUCKKKKK" Orion screamed, and then tried to use his overcoat like a primitive parachute. To his dismay the game mechanics prevented such attempts.

Meanwhile Kirito tried to slow their fall by using his sword but the distance was too great and his sword was just short of reaching the wall and the two continued to fall like stones.

* * *

*Poof* like a sound of snow being crunched Orion and Kirito landed flatly on the pile of snow at the bottom of the hole.

"I am still alive!" Orion cried out as he pulled himself out of the snow and checked all his limbs, to his relief they were all still attached.

Next to him he could see Kirito calmly taking two healing potions out and offering one to Orion.

"Thanks... much appreciated" Popping the vial he drank the sweet liquor, until he could feel some of his strength returning.

With the immediate danger passed, the duo surveyed their surroundings and found that they were trapped inside a large circular cave with only exit being the hole they had initially dropped from.

Checking through his combat log, Orion found that the Ingot he had been sent for was absent. Feeling a little depressed he spoke to Kirito "The ore Lisbeth asked did not drop. Now we know that metal we are looking doesn't exist so let's get out of here."

Orion took out a crystal and shouted "Teleport Lindearth!"

Strangely, nothing happened. Trying once more he shouted "Teleport Lindearth!"

"It's no use this place looks like an anti crystal zone." Kirito told Orion in a calm voice.

"Alright then, no need to scream like little girls... I can ask Liz to save us!" Opening up his menu Orion opened up a private message to Lisbeth and furiously wrote to her his location, how he landed in it and the about not finding the metal.

Finished with the message he pressed send, but instead of the usual message sent, Orion was rewarded with big red letters 'This function cannot be used within a dungeon'.

"What?!" Alarmed at what he read Orion spoke quickly with his voice rising "This is a dungeon? There must be another way out of the hole! I don't want to die with a guy!"

"You do realize that we can't actually starve to death right?" Kirito said keeping his calm.

Sighing heavily Orion sunk into the snow and rocked himself back and forth. "So this is how it ends... stuck in a hole with another dude forever."

"Let me see if I can run up along the wall."

Putting his palm to his face Orion remained silent.

Kirito taking the silence as his queue replied "Well, let's find out."

Orion watched in amazement as Kirito sprinted towards the side of the wall and ran across it like a Ninja. After losing his momentum he jumped across the walls bouncing upward like a ping pong ball.

Just as he was about to reach one third of the way to the top, Orion heard a small yelp and saw a body fall from the sky and land directly in front of him.

"Guess that's not going to work" Orion grinned insidiously and pulled Kirito off the snow. "Now watch the master at work!" Orion said boastingly as he dashed towards the wall sprinting as fast as he could.

Just as he was about to jump like Kirito, his foot made contact with something solid and Orion slipped, sadly his body still became airborne and like a poor cartoon character he crashed into the icy wall head first.

* * *

"So this is what Liz sent me to find" Orion pointed at the transparent, silvery ingot after regaining consciousness."But why would it be buried here?"

"Ah..." Kirito said "...The white dragon eats crystals... which are refined in its stomach to become..."

With a groan, Orion understood that he was holding a very hard and shiny piece of crap. Reluctantly he put it inside his inventory and washed his hands on the nearby snow.

"Well that's taken care of, now what?" Orion said and in response small camp site materialized from thin air before his eyes.

Crouching next to the fire to warm his hands he said. "Nice, somebody's prepared. Mind if I heat something up on the fire?" Kirito nodded and Orion pulled out some of the food he had been carrying and warmed it next to the fire.

After finish eating Kirito opened his inventory and like two sleeping bags materialized.

"Two sleeping bags? Getting ready to go out camping with your girl friend?" In response Kirito's face reddened.

"Haha I am just kidding." Orion said as he slid into the sleeping bag and dozed off.

* * *

Next morning Orion woke up to the smell of badly brewed up soup. Looking around he found a steaming bowl next to him, he sat upright and reached for the bowl. Tasting it once and finding it absolutely terrible he immediately put down the bowl back down and looked at Kirito with amazement as he seemed to have no negative reaction to it.

Coughing a few times to clear his throat, Orion said. "Alright I was going to ask you once the job was finished but since it seems like we are going to be stuck in this god forsaken hole till the game is cleared, I am going to take a leap of faith and ask. Do you have the Divine Stone of Returning Soul?

"No" Kirito replied back a little surprised but with a firm answer.

_Shit another false lead._

Curious at why his companion was looking for the stone Kirito asked. "Why are you looking for it?"

Sighing deeply Orion replied "For so many wrong reasons, haha."

"It is not like we are going anywhere..."

"I suppose you are right... it's a long story so let's begin by telling you a story Kirito-Kun."

Clearing his throat once more Orion spoke in a tone of voice that resembled that of a fairy tale story.

"Ahem- Ahem... Once upon a time in Aincrad..."

* * *

There was a cold hearted calculating Army Lieutenant. He didn't have a lot of close friends but thankfully he had two sisters one younger and one older to keep him socially sane. It was roughly a year ago, and the army had thus far been extremely successful clearing floors. The cold hearted bastard who never smiled was the same on that faithful day of the boss fight on the 25th floor.

"Clearers! Who do they think they are, bunch of unorganized rabble, if they were truly interested in clearing the game they should have joined the Aincrad Liberation force." Major Cobert commented to his aide as he looked at the left flank being held up by the clearers. "Discipline! Training! That's what they need."

The lieutenant simply nodded in agreement and stood silent as he watched the battle unfold before his eyes. Briareos the Hekatonkheire a mountainous boss with fifty heads and hundred arms. Each of which wielded a sword and a shield that was being kept busy by close to hundred players attacking it from all sides.

_Good thing we have more than enough men to fight each of hands individually. _The young lieutenant thought then with a stout expression he spoke. "Congratulations sir. At this rate, we will be clearing the 26th by end of the week."

Smiling happily the major asked. "How many did we lose lieutenant?"

"The casualties are within the acceptable range sir! We have only lost seven so far."

"Good now I want you-"

With a large tremor, the major's words were cut off as a large explosion on the right flank threw several members of the army into the air like ragdolls, who were then dragged off to safety by other players.

"Should I send in the reserves sir?" The junior officer asked the major.

The major nodded approving the plan silently then added as an afterthought."Make sure that no coward runs the other way."

With a salute, the Lieutenant left the major and jogged towards the group of army reserves who were resting and recuperating.

Approaching the tired and demoralized group the lieutenant yelled with a commanding voice. "On your fucking feet now! Time to help the guys who are doing actual work!"

The boss by then had entered its third and final stage of the fight, discarding all of its smaller weapons, the boss now wielded a massive two hander the size of a trailer truck and with what could have been a devious grin from all fifty faces it swung its sword horizontally in a 360 degree arc.

"On the floor now!" The young lieutenant shouted as he saw the massive two hander swipe and moments later skim right over his head. Those behind him kissed the ground with him but many near the boss, especially those in the right flank where the swipe began were too late, and were killed instantly with only a few tanks and some lucky players left to continue the fight.

"This is fucking suicide we gotta run now!" One of the men behind him shouted.

The young lieutenant turned and punched the coward in the face. His cursor turning orange for a brief moment then back to green."NO! We are going to stay and fight you miserable coward!"

Unaware of the drama occurring at the rear of the flank, one of the army officers with a panicked face in the right flank screamed "Retreat! Fall back now-" until his voice was cut short as he disappeared from the view after the massive two hander landed on top of him.

Taking control of the situation the lieutenant shouted to his men. "The boss is almost down, you will either fight here or die in Black Iron Castle!" and tripped one of the coward into the ground as he tried to make a run for it.

Remembering the rumors they had heard, and the serious threat they just heard the men stopped in their tracks and with uneasy feeling turned their attention back to the boss.

_Useless! Every single one of them, if they could fight half as well as my sister we would have cleared the game by now._ The lieutenant thought while looking at the center front that was still holding strong.

With the additional reserves streaming in towards the room the Lieutenant charged into the battle with a reluctant squad trailing behind him. Then everything went horribly wrong-

* * *

"Aruuuuooooooooooooo"

A long wolf like howling echoed down the hole and interrupted the story.

Scratching his head Orion wondered for a moment before realizing that. _This middle of morning! There should't be any wolf BGM playing now! _

"Stern!" Orion blurted out, remembering the beagle's howl.

Moments later a voice echoed down to them "Hey! Anybody down there?!"

"Sanitator?! Hey we are down here!" Orion yelled towards the top of the hole, blinded by the morning sunlight that shined down on him.

"What's that stern!? Orion fell down a well?!" A surprised voice echoed down to them.

"Stop joking around and throw us a rope!" Kirito yelled to a figure now standing next to a dog.

With what was clearly a mischievous grin Sanitator casually tossed down a long rope. Kirito seized the rope and tied both himself and Orion to it and gave a gentle pull to indicate that they were secure.

After a few minutes of slow progress, Sanitator and Stern managed to pull the two players up. Feeling exhausted the two rescuers crumpled to the ground. "Geez thank you both for coming up together... just couldn't wait huh? When Lis said that the two of you went missing I didn't believe her, but now I can see how the two idiots ended up in a hole!"

* * *

**A/N**  
Major edit 11/2: I spelled Kirito's name wrong for the entire chapter! Brillliannntt!


	8. Hammer & Sickle

**Hammer and Sickle **

After a long walk back to the town portal, the three travelers finally arrived back at their starting point. Opening the wooden door, three stepped into the shop with bells ringing in their ears.

"Welcome to the store!" The NPC clerk shouted to the visitors.

"Seems like Lisbeth is not here." Kritio commented, examining the empty store.

"I am sure she will be back soon, she is usually somewhere where daily events are being held." Orion answered back.

Walking towards the clerk, he leaned across the counter and said "She has such a bad habit of leaving the shop unattended. Don't you agree?"

"Welcome to the store!" The NPC responded with its default greeting.

"You do realize that this is an NPC right?" Sanitator said little confused with his friend's behavior.

"Of course I do, but you see we have a special bond..." Orion replied with his voice tingling with emotion "For this handsome creature suffered and I stood vigilantly together! During the hard times! Happy times! Selling items to whoever would hear our plea! In some ways you could say that there is a sense of brotherhood between us!"

"Welcome to the store!" The NPC spoke supporting of Orion's argument.

Kritio and Sanitator exchanged looks with each other and smiled sadly at Orion with pity in their eyes.

Trying to ignore the mental state his friend must be in after the dramatic event of being stuck in a hole, Sanitator asked Orion. "Do you mind if I sleep in one of beds for a few hours? I didn't get any sleep last night thanks to you two."

"Of course! Where are my manners, feel free to sleep in my room, its upstairs across the hall to the right."

Then he added a veiled threat. "But don't go anywhere near Liz's room or you are going to be staying there forev-"

"Ya ya Stern and I am going to take a long nap and then have a small parade thrown for myself for rescuing two idiots..." Sanitator said as he climbed the stairs while waving his hand dismissively then muttered. "I still can't believe you fell into a hole."

Seeing Sanitator march upstairs with stern right behind him, Orion turned to Kritio.

"So what about you? Are you going to hang around until Lis come back? Or are you planning on jump in bed with Sanitator?"

"I don't know... I do have to go back to grinding." Kritio said. Not even acknowledging the second question.

"If you want, I can make your sword." Orion said while putting on his I am the best blacksmith you will ever see face.

With a confident smile he continued. "I can assure you my Slash Weapon Forging skill rivals of LIz's skill. In fact some people" _Me, myself and I._ Orion thought to himself quietly. "believe that my forging skill is actually superior!"

"No" Kritio said seeing through his ruse. "I really don't want to spend another day in an icy hole so that I can be rescued again by a dog."

_What about Sanitator!? Is he worse than a dog?!_ Orion mentally asked. "Fine but you should know that you are missing your chance to see a genius such as myself create a beautiful masterpiece!"

"I know, but I will trust what Lisbeth can do with the ingot."

Sighing heavily. "Fine... I ll give you a message once Lis comes back." Orion said as he sent Kritio a friend request.

Kritio with an apologetic smile pressed the accept button on the request window then walked out of the store, waving good bye. "Maybe you can finish your army story another time!" he shouted back to Orion as he walked away.

With a smile Orion muttered to himself. "Maybe, maybe not."

* * *

Slumping into a nearby chair, Orion collected his thoughts. D_am this was an exhausting job, maybe I will sleep a little bit and get my mind off... crap... Forgot about the ores I brought in yesterday._

Orion stood up and headed towards the backroom, equipping a blacksmith's hammer in his hand and putting on his brown apron, he mentally prepared himself for the little bit of work he would need to do before he could throw Sanitator out of his room and sleep in peace. _I am going to need to finish working on those ores before Liz figures out that I didn't refine them into ingots. _

Pushing open the backroom door, Orion saw a small skinny player, with his long black hair poking out of the grey clock that shrouded the rest of his body.

Approaching the player with a polite smile, Orion asked. "Excuse me! Are you lost buddy? The shop is in the front." then added with a voice of a tour guide. "This is the workshop! Where the magic happens!"

The player stood silently as Orion walked closer, curious why the player hasn't responded, until he realized that the customer was actually a she. Lost for words, he began preparing an apology in his head.

Perhaps insulted by his words or capitalizing on his confusion the girl drew a sickle, from her cloak and pointed it at Orion. At that exact moment her cursor changed its color from green to orange as her hiding skill evaporated and unmasked her true colors.

Feeling as if he had been in this sort of situation too many times recently Orion expressed his disappointment loudly. "Why do these things happen when I am alone? Is there some sort of code that I don't know about? Who was the genius who said let's all ambush the blacksmith when he is by himself!?"

Without replying to his questions the cloaked assailant thrust the sickle straight towards Orion's neck.

Ducking just in time to dodge the attack, Orion drew his butter knife and screamed to the opened door. "Help! There is a little girl armed with a sickle trying to kill me!"

The intruder trying to finish the job quickly, took a step back, readied her combat stance and activated a sword skill Reaver.

As the blade accelerated towards him, Orion's butter knife in a stroke of luck managed to parry and cling onto the sickle. Taking advantage of the situation, he swung his right arm and continuously wacked his assailant with the blacksmith's hammer.

_Why the hell am I fighting with a hammer?!_ Orion thought to himself as he noticed how little damage he had done. Disengaging his attacker and Orion searched for a better weapon lying around.

At that exact moment the partially closed workshop doors flung open and with it his savior arrived.

Dressed in colorful clothing, the man with the friendly smile and a mustache spoke. "Welcome to the store!" His savior shouted.

"Clerk! I knew you would save me! Quick tell Sanitator that I am about to be killed by a sickle wielding communist!" Orion shouted across the room, parrying the sickle again with his butter knife.

"Would you like to buy something?"

Shocked at the clerk's new words Orion felt a sense of accomplishment rush inside him until reality sank back in. "No now is not the time to be learning new phrases!" Orion yelled as he ducked under the table and narrowly missed a sweeping blow.

Realizing that his friend was only here for moral support, Orion threw his hammer towards to the intruder and quickly grabbed a rusty iron dagger on the table that he had been working on for the last few days.

_Slightly better than the hammer but I need to distract her for a moment before I can get my actual gear out!_

Fortunately for Orion, the bells in front of the store rung, indicating that a customer has arrived at the store.

Seeing his chance he screamed on top of his lung. "HEEEELLLPPPPPPPPP!"

The NPC clerk perhaps overcoming its advanced programming, rushed to the aid of the human.

Sadly for Orion it was back into the shop where he greeted the unseen customer "Welcome to the store!" and closed the door behind him in the process, making the room completely sound proof.

"NOOOOOOOO" Orion screamed in agony as he realized that he had been abandoned to a certain death and for once even the strange girl laughed at him pitifully.

Gambling with his life, Orion risked throwing his only useful weapon the rusty Iron dagger, at the intruder and distracted her for a moment. Taking advantage of the situation Orion quickly equipped his Ivory Annelance with a speed that was fueled by his sense of anger and betrayal.

Once his dagger materialized in his hands, Orion feeling extremely confident spoke arrogently.

"Maybe you should give up now... let's face it... you are nowhere near good enough to take me down." Stating the obvious fact that he believed to be true.

"Ah Orion-san I was wondering when you actually start taking me seriously." The intruder spoke in a mocking tone in response.

"Please! After seeing my wondrous talents with the dagger you will be begging for lessons!" Orion rudely replied back as he readied his daggers.

"We'll see." The intruder answered back then took a combat stance and activated a sword skill Fell Crescent.

Seeing the charge ability, Orion had just enough time to roll to the right and narrowly dodge the attack. Immediately after he finished his roll, Orion readied his combat stance and used a mid level charge skill Rapid Bite at his opponent.

The intruder, unable to move freely after using a sword skill, stood motionless as Orion's dagger went straight through her left ankle, cutting it off from the rest of her avatar and then exploding it into pieces.

To his surprise, his assailant crumpled to the ground immediately after losing the limb as the paralysis poison kicked in.

_Strange no antidote crystals? _Orion wondered briefly until he decided that the girl was merely a robber trying to rob the store and was not expecting such a skilled player to be guarding the place.

_But she knew my name... so that can't be true... I suppose I will have to take the high road and ask._

Sighing heavily, Orion carried the unresponsive but screaming body and tied it to the work bench, where he had laid the bugged NPC days ago.

After ensuring that she was tied securely, Orion asked. "First thing is first, who are you? Just an average orange player? Contract killer? A rouge army agent? Bounty hunter?"

The girl did not reply and kept her mouth shut. "That's not very polite." Orion commented with a disapproving look. "Just a minute ago you were trying to kill me... hmmm... how about your name? It is only fair as you seem to know mine."

"Yamada" The dark haired girl replied who seemed more disappointed at the fact she had been caught then by the fact that she was tied down onto a workbench.

"Alright then Yamada." Orion said relaxing his body as he sat down on a nearby chair. "Since the last two people to pull the same stunt on me were either's Liz's friend or her friend's secret admirer, I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt and leave you like this until Liz comes back home."

"Ahahaha but she won't be coming back home."

"And why shouldn't she?" Orion asked, curious at how she would be able to claim such a thing.

"Because my friends are holding her hostage even as we speak." Yamada replied with a grin.

_She does realize that she is tied to a work bench and I could kill her for this...? _Orion scratched his head and wondered why someone would be so stupid.

"Why are you here?" Orion asked instead.

"Why to get the stone of course." She spoke in a surprised tone of voice.

_What? _Feeling a little bit confused, Orion tried to explain. "I don't have the stone, I-"

"Don't lie to me!" The small girl interrupted. "Why else would a prominent contract killer stop searching for the item he has been looking for over a year then just settle down with a blacksmith."

_Because I wanted to be a blacksmith? What do you think genuis?! _Orion replied mentally, while keeping his mouth shut.

Unable to hear his mental comeback, the girl continued. "If you don't hand me over the stone you will never see your blacksmith... She is probably being held by my friends in a remote area right now... and once I send the word she is going to wake up in the real world for about ten seconds before having her brains fried."

Sighing deeply Orion pretended to confess. "Alright I have the stone, just tell me where she is and I will take the stone and hand it to your friends. But if she is harmed, the stone goes with me to the grave."

"No, you will have to let me first, before we make any deals." The girl said sounding a little bit startled.

"Nah you are going to stay here as insurance in case your friends decide they can have the stone and kill Lisbeth." Orion answered back with the most logical answer he had.

"What? NO! You can't do that!" Yamada said with a panicked voice.

Finding her reactions to be strange, Orion decided to try a little experiment.

"You know what" Orion said bringing out his extremely polite voice that he reserved for his contracts.

"I think I am going to play a different game and make you confess her location or let you die and find Lisbeth on my own." Orion said as he held his dagger high into air. "Besides you said yourself if you don't send a message... your friends won't know when to kill her..."

Without warning, Orion roared loudly and stabbed the table narrowly missing her head.

Yamada winced and closed her eyes in fear.

_Amateur _Orion thought, _Lisbeth can take on an army of these clowns, if she is even being held hostage._

But seeing the terrified girl in front of him, Orion felt a little bad for the supposed kidnapper. So he sheathed his dagger and laughed loudly.

"Hahahahaha! I am just kidding, why go through all that violence when I can just to check on my friend's list and find her location."

"WHHHAAAAT!?" The girl screamed at him, her face appearing shocked at what he had just said. "That wasn't part of the plan! You aren't supposed know how to do that!"

Raising his eye brows at her he thought. D_oes she_ _seriously think I am that stupid?_

"Was I really stupid in your plan?" Orion asked fearful of the answer.

Yamada nodded confirming his theory.

Putting his palm into his face, he simple sat for a moment.

Seeing as he wouldn't be getting any useful out of his captive, he managed to put Yamada to sleep by injecting her with sleep poison. Afterwards Orion double checked the ropes he had used were properly tied.

Feeling satisfied with his handiwork, Orion sent a message to Lisbeth. Lis are you alright?

...? I am fine I am meeting with a friend  She replied back moments later.

Relieved but to make sure that she was really alright, Orion checked her location. To his surprise her location was the former field base of the laughing coffin on the 43rd floor.

Feeling a little suspicious he sent another message. Who are you meeting?

Come and find out yourself.  Lisbeth replied back.

Unable to leave a potential hostage by herself in the shop, Orion sent a text to Sanitator, as he hurried out of the shop.

Wake up! There is a girl tied down in the backroom! No its not some sort of elaborate set up. DO NOT let her escape!

* * *

_Just as I left the place, funny how there is no trace of the battle that ended with so many deaths. _Orion mused as he pushed the wooden door and saw the pristine room.

Looking ahead towards the end of the hall, Orion saw a tall man wrapped in black sitting on the wooden throne. Next to him was Lisbeth who seemed to be talking to the man on the throne.

The man in black, spotting the guest arriving at his court shouted across the hall. "Orion-kun! I was wondering when you would be joining us."

"PoH! Nice to see you without two of your lackeys next to you... Where did they go again? Oh wait... they got caught, my most sincere apologies for not remembering the tragedy." Orion spoke spitefully as he walked up to the wooden throne.

PoH winced at Orion's comment and his hand moved down towards his dagger, his eyes suspicious and alert.

Orion ignoring PoH's behavior, he took the opportunity and spoke to Lisbeth.

"Lis! What are you doing with him? Do you know who he is?"

"Don't worry Orion, he's the friend who gave me an advice few weeks ago."

"I suspected as much." Orion said dryly then demanded. "But why didn't you tell me who he was?! Or why you are meeting with him now!?"

"Now, now Orion-kun... No need to be so hostile." PoH spoke in a gentle tone of voice, a voice one would have used to lecture a slow child. "It is not as if I am drawing a weapon and threatening to murder you." PoH said raising his two arms into air to show his peaceful intent.

"Funny you'd say that, an orange player tried to kill me just an hour ago." Orion replied cheerfully then pointed to himself. "Of course as you can see I am still alive and doing relatively well."

"I can assure that I did not have any part in your recent 'problem'..." PoH said in an even voice "and... if you should have perished at the hands of an amateur then we would not have the reason to be meeting here."

PoH turned his attention briefly back to Lisbeth "For now our business here is concluded, thank you Lisbeth for your time." and gave a her small bow.

Afterwards he refocused his attention back to Orion with what appeared to be a devious grin painted on his face.

"Like Lisbeth said before... Orion-kun I am her friend, and since she is your friend I suppose that also make me your friend as well."

_Over my dead body_ "Sorry PoH but I don't see you on my list and the only way you are getting into my friend's list is by chopping off my hands so you can try to press the accept button."

"Such a shame… it would have been a mutually benefitting deal but that's not very important... do you mind if we speak for a moment and discuss a job?"

"Absolutely not." Orion replied sharply as he walked up to Lisbeth gently grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the exit. Without giving her a chance to explain, he spoke to her with fury. "What were you thinking, do you know what he could ha-"

"It involves a certain stoneeee." PoH calmly interrupted Orion, stretching the last word to grab his attention.

"The last source I trusted turned out to be dead wrong." Orion replied as he continued to walk away without looking back. _Oh ya he's also dead._

"But what if Kritio-kun was lying to you."

Upon hearing those words, he stopped in his tracks and turned around and looked PoH squarely in his mask.

_How the hell did he know that? I made sure that the DDA leader went to the grave with that secret._

"He was telling the truth as far as I can tell and that's all I need." Orion commented remembering the facial expressions and the tone of voice Kritio had used.

"Perhaps... but that still does not mean that the stone does not exist or that it passed through his hands at one point or another."

"Get to the point PoH, I am a busy person."

"And just when did playing a third rate blacksmith make someone busy?" PoH spoke in an annoyed tone of voice while looking at Orion's brown apron. "Oh yes I know all about your efforts to live a boring green plant life."

"Then you know that I won't be doing any killing for you, I am on vacation, though maybe I will take a job as a bounty hunter and hunt people as a hobby." Orion spoke with a grin and wondered if he would be able to take PoH down if it came to a fight.

"Oh but I assure you Orion-kun, you won't be killing anyone… in fact you would just be breaking someone out of the jail."

"Ha! No thanks I had hard enough time trying to escape from one."

"And who do you think motivated you to do it." PoH grinned."This is my deal. You do this 'tiny' job for me and you will be forever remembered as a legend in this game."

"Thanks but no thanks. I am already a legend in my own mind." Orion said as he slowly reached down for two of his daggers just in case PoH took his rejection the wrong way.

PoH appearing unconcerned continued to explain his offer. "...And as an added bonus I will give you what you have been looking for the last 12 months, if I am wrong you can have my dagger."

"That's a pretty good deal, how do I know you are going to keep your word?" Orion asked, suspicious on just what exactly PoH was asking him to do.

"Of course you will need a little faith to trust me but my reputation as a promise keeping killer speaks for itself."

After a mulling it over for moment, and unable to resist the chance of having the stone or at very least PoH infamous dagger, Orion answered. "Alright I am listening, who is so dam important that you want my help?"

"Why everyone course." PoH said with a theatrical voice. "I believe that we all deserve a second chance in life."

* * *

A/N  
I almost cried/jumped with joy a little bit after seeing that my chapters were being read and taken seriously. (Or in some cases as I wanted them to be taken) I want to thank every single one of you for reading my words! People who think cigarettes are gateway drugs clearly have no idea what writing feelings like! Another chapter done! And more to write! HURAH! FOWARD! TOWARDS MY NEXT FIX! Also just for the sake of the story, Lisbeth's shop is not within the town protected by Crime Prevention Code.


	9. Opening Pandora's Box

**Opening Pandora's Box **

48th Floor Lindearth

"Yes, this will do nicely." Orion said staring down at crudely made metal armor and helmet

"You sure you don't want me to reinforce it?" Lisbeth asked twirling a hammer in her hand.

"Nah it's just for show and identification, won't be getting hit by anyone." Orion replied back confidently, in response Lisbeth gave him a skeptical look.

"Whatever you say... but don't come back crying when you have holes in your body." Pointing to the workshop Lisbeth added. "So! What are we going to do with her?"

I could kill her and all this would go away. Orion thought darkly. "Maybe we can send her to jail?"

"But aren't you going to break everyone out?" After a pause she continued with a meaningful look on her face. "I think you should bring her to the job and let her redeem herself."

"Lis you have a heart of gold and a soft spot for broken people but that is just out of the question, she tried to kill me." Then the other person that tried to kill him, Orion tried to explain his take on the issue. "I know, I know I brought Kirito with me on the last job but this one is much more important than-"

"Getting an ore for me?" Lisbeth asked with what Orion saw as a hint of anger emitting from her posture.

"Well, th-that was an important job too but you know what? I think Sanitator probably wants this job, in fact I will ask him and-"

"He will say no." Sanitator said as he climbed down the stairs to investigate the commotion. "As much as I would love to go and let criminal run around free... work has been piling up, and that takes priority."

"You see?" Lisbeth said. "You got to give her a chance."

"So she can stab a knife at my back? Sure that sounds fantastic!"

Lisbeth not taking joke as Orion planned glared at him, and with that look the weak willed killer sighed deeply and admitted defeat.

"Alright I will go talk to her, and 'if' she wants to come then I will bring her along."

Escaping from the shop as fast as he could, Orion opened the door workshop door and quickly closed it behind him, with a plan already formulating on his mind on how to get his way without Lisbeth being none the wiser. In front of him was Yamada, the sickle wielder who hours ago tried to kill him, still tied to the workbench but for some strange reason appeared to be quite happy to see him.

Approaching the workbench, Orion grabbed his butter knife and cut the girl loose.

"Alright, listen very carefully, I am only going to say this once."

"You threatened me and Lis, and more importantly you tried to kill me... usually I would have killed you a long time ago for any of that." Orion pointed the butter knife at the girl's neck.

"But since Lis believes in, I am going to give you a chance to get out of here before I change my mind about not murdering little girls." Orion sheathed his knife and put on his serious face to further convey the message."

"Now scram." He said hoping that the girl would take the hint and run.

"No" The girl said simply as he stared Orion right in the eye without blinking.

And with that single word, his serious expression changed to that of disbelief. "What? Come on... you are free! What can you possible want?"

"The stone would help." Yamada answered as she jumped off the table and strolled around the shop.

Sighing deeply Orion said. "Don't have it... even if I do I won't hand it over... why do you want it so badly anyway? Lose a family member or a friend?"

Yamada looked at him with a curious expression. "No, why would I need to lose a family member or a friend?"

Tilting his head in curiosity Orion asked carefully. "You do know what the stone is for right?"

"Isn't it a gem that's worth a lot of col?" Yamada replied with a sincere voice and an excited face.

Orion mentally banged his head against the wall. _She doesn't know what the stone is!_

*cough* "That doesn't change the fact that I don't have the stone." He said, wondering how he could use this information to his advantage or he should keep it to himself.

"Well I heard your plan... I know what you are going to do and I think you could use some help."

_Not from you._ "I will have to pass up on that offer, by the way, time's up and I ll be back in five minutes. If you are not gone by then I can't promise you anything." Orion waved his hand in goodbye as he walked up to the shop door, turning his back on Yamada.

"Alright fine! I ll talk to you later! You second rate blacksmith!"

"What?! Who are you calling second rate!" Looking behind his shoulder to give the girl a piece of his mind, Orion found only empty space where he saw the girl was moments ago.

_That was fast but at least she is gone._ With a smile he opened the door, and yelled. "Sanitator! When did you check the ropes?! She escaped!"

* * *

First Floor Starting Town

*Knock knock* The sound vibrated spread throughout the house, and footsteps could of someone approaching the door could be heard.

"Who's there?" A male voice inside the door responded.

"A dashingly handsome prince who came to rescue a princess."

"What?"

"Just open the door." And with a click, the door unlocked and opened revealing a rather grumpy looking old man, whose face lightened up as he saw his visitor.

"Orion! Ah so good to see you, come in quick the army catch you if you are here." Zek without waiting for an answer grabbed Orion's hand and dragged him into his home.

"Nah they would never expect to see me down here." The visitor commented as he was sucked inside the house.

Entering the small room filled with books, scrolls and occasional papers littered on the floor, Orion watched his step as he followed his host, taking care not to step on anything.

Orion looking at the mess around him smiled. "Lot of books you got here, trying to become a historian of Aincrad? Now that reality has given you the boot?"

"Hahaha, maybe... one thing that this game has done relatively well on was its lore..." Zek gestured to a seat with his hand and Orion sat down while his host paced the room, to his right through a window he could see players and NPC walking around interacting with each other in the central plaza.

_It seems like it was only yesterday when Akihiko Kayaba announced his sick game there... can't believe it has already been over a year._ Orion thought as he pretended to listen by responding with occasional nods and agreements.

"...Of course, no one reads it... well aside from occasional nosy information broker but even then they grow tired of it quickly."

"Find anything interesting?" Orion asked politely to prove that he was listening attentively. The professor answered his question by walking up to a large oak bookshelf and pulling out several volumes from it.

"Though I can't determine if they are true or not there are very interesting stories here, for instance this book is about a young warrior who topples down a god with his twin blade." Zek said showing him a black book, with two swords drawn on the cover.

"I don't suppose there is a book about a talented orange player?"

"Well... I don't think I have anything like that." Looking at Orion's disappointed face, Zek quickly showed him a different book. "But how about the Siren? A beautiful woman who plays the harp to manipulate others?"

"Sorry Zek but those fairy tales sound very dull." Orion said waving his hands dismissively.

"Hmph" Expressing his disappointment Zek returned the books to their shelf. "So what brings you to my humble house, if not for my tales?"

"What I can't visit an old friend?" Orion said putting up a sheepish face. "Enough about me what are you up to?"

"Knowing you I am sure you didn't just come to 'visit' an old friend, god knows you had plenty of time to visit me after I was released..."

"What?! I sent you a lot of messages afterwards! And even sent you that golden fork I found." Orion said remembering all the odd bits of items that he had sent over through the courier.

"Don't try to put a spin on it, not visiting is still means no visit, but since you asked so nicely... I got a job with the Aincrad Observer. I mean it's not writing essays or books but some newspaper writing does keep my mind afloat, and it pays the bills."

"I see... You wouldn't happen to know the name of the fine gentlemen who runs that place would you?"

"Of course I know him, he's name is ZIrai, nice young man, actually gives a dam about the things I say, reviews my work too."

"Sounds like an interesting guy, I'll pay him a visit next..."

_With a hand full of gold in my hand to make him sing to any tune I tell him to._

"...but before I do that, I have to ask for a small favor."

"Of course... what is it." Zek took a seat and gave Orion his full attention.

"I want you to give a speech, to get people really excited about something." Orion said with a serious expression that replaced his previously cheerful one.

"A speech? About what? To whom? Where?!" Zek almost sprung from his seat, his voice unable to control his curiosity and excitement.

"About the army, to a group of people that has a potential to be an angry mob. As for the location, it will be right here in this fair city." Orion answered with a shrewd smile.

After a pause to make his statement sound dramatic pointed out across the window. "To be exact... where all of this began, the central plaza of the Starting City."

* * *

Two days later. Outskirts of the Starting City

Sitting on top of the tree just outside the starting city and its area of crime prevention code, Orion took out the daily paper from his inventory and read the front page story with interest.

"Army official claims innocence against the recent rumor"

Scrolling down past the headlines, the newspaper reported:

"After yesterday's accusation of the army's corruption and the poor treatment that prisoners were facing in the black Iron castle by the this paper yesterday. The Aincrad liberation forces responded to these accusations through head warden Galug of Black Iron Castle, who had this to say. "The rumors against the treatment of our prisoners are far from true. In fact some may consider that these prisoners are receiving better treatment...""

Excellent indeed. Orion thought, remembering the puke he had to eat in prison, before continuing to read.

"...than what is being paid for by our generous taxpaying players."

_Opps you shouldn't have mentioned that last part, people are not going to be pleased for being 'generous' taxpayers, when it is an open secret that taxes are really an extortion._ Orion smiled darkly, then turned around and spoke to the tree branch next to him.

"I figured you'd stop by sooner or later." Hearing the rustle of the leaves above him, Orion waited for a moment before Yamada materialized from thin air grinning at him. "You must have ridiculously high hiding level to have stayed hidden for this long."

"I am thief remember?"

"I can't remember what you never tell me... so what you specialize in stalking?"

"No I am a cat burglar, but wait... what happened to 'if I see you again I will get violent' talk?"

With a smile Orion tossed the newspaper to the ground. "Nah, as long as you stay away from the shop I won't lay a hand on you. So what bring you to this tree branch?"

"To be honest, I wanted to see what you are about to do."

"Well you will see soon enough once the army patrol comes, but that's not too important. Though I am curious is why you told me that Lis was kidnapped when she really wasn't." With that said, Orion readied his hands for any sudden movements in case the young thief had answers in a physical form he did not approve of.

*Cough* "That was the only bluff I could come up with at the time." Yamada grinned. Little embarrassed by what he heard Orion relaxed and moved his hand away from his weapons.

"So... if that's the case, I could use a hand." Orion commented as he looked beneath the tree and saw a well armored army player walking beneath him.

_Ah a lone guardsman, I guess army is really relaxed about patrolling the first floor, back in the day there used to be squads heading out of these places-_

"I thought you didn't want any help." Yamada replied, breaking his mental train of thought.

"Well to be honest all you need to do is stand there and wave to that nice man." Orion pointed to the guard. "While you do that I am going to scare the crap out of him. After I get what I want, if you want you get to stab him with this." Orion said while handing her a small dagger tipped with sleeping poison.

Giving her suspicious look he added. "I want it back after this is done."

"Of course" Yamada replied with a grin, that did not seem entirely truthful.

Jumping and silently landing behind the guard with a roll, Orion stood up and wrapped his left arm around the guard's body then pointed a dagger at the guardsman's face to show him that he was in trouble.

"Stay calm, this is not a robbery." The guard unable to understand the situation froze and stood motionless.

"Good choice, now time let's send a message."

The guard misinterpreting the word message panicked. "I-I-I don't wan-nt to die! Please!"

"The other type of message, genius."

"What? Wh-who are you?" The guard continued to trembling with fear . "I-I don't know what you want b-but I am j-just a grunt!"

"Doesn't matter. You do what I say and you get a to walk but... if not my associate up there", Orion pointed to the orange cursor of Yamada, "will make sure you wake up on a hospital bed, dead."

"A-a-alright what do you want me to do?" Now fully understanding the situation the the guard's face paled, his leg now shaking with pure terror.

"Open up your menu, then go to the message function, no need to hurry we got all day."

The guard visible distressed, worked quickly while both of his hand shook like a cell phone on vibration. After a few seconds the guard stopped, waiting for further instructions.

"Now create a forward message so that it will be sent to all the members of the guild."

"D-done."

"Good now this is the hard part, write 'it's show time'."

The guardsman with a confused look on his face, typed out the message that was primed to be sent to the entire guild.

"Now send it." Orion said moving his dagger closer to the frightened player's neck as an extra incentive.

"Ok-okay it's sent! Please just let me go! I don't even know why you want me to type this?..." The guard stopped in mid-sentence as he slowly realized what or more exactly whose catchphrase he had just sent out to the entire army command. "It-it's show time? You-you-you are-"

"Ding ding ding we have winner, thanks for playing." Orion interrupted the guard and feeling satisfied, he signaled Yamada.

Moments later a small figure jumped from the tree branch, landed squarely on two feet, walked up to the guardsman and stabbed him in the chest.

After waiting a few seconds to ensure that poison had done its job. Orion released the limp body he was holding that immediately crumpled into the ground, snoring loudly.

To make sure that the guardsman was really sleeping, Orion kicked the guard twice and checked his work. "Good work Yamada."

"Now what?" she asked slipping the dagger Orion had given her into her inventory.

_I hope you return that later_. Orion thought as he saw the theft, but chose to ignore it for now and store the information in a dark corner of his mind for future use.

" 'Now' you wait here."

"What?! How are you going to do this without help?" Yamada said, her voice full of outrage and betrayal.

"Sometimes being an orange player means blending in with the greens, and right now..." Orion pointed to Yamada's orange cursor. "You can't do that, especially not with what I have planned."

* * *

A/N

Important note: Galug is just a reversed spelling of the Russian Gulag. The warden is in no way the bear man that I googled just now and found out about.

The next chapter will be released relatively soon, as the dialogues are already written. It will be done before Saturday.

Once again thank you for reading the chapter.

EDIT: OCT 31st Thank you NoCreativity for pointing out the error, it is now fixed! Or atleast I think so.


	10. End Game

**End Game**

* * *

1st floor Starting City

"Its show time?!" The sergeant hollered on top of his lung to the private next to him. "What is this? Who sent this?"

"Private Hachirou sir."

"Is he responding to any messages?"

"No sir."

"Then send a god dam squad to his position! I want to know what he is up to!"

"Yes Sir!" With terrified look, the private ran off with other guards and headed towards the outskirts of the city.

The sergeant then turned around and barked out to another private. "You! Send out patrols everywhere in the city, we are going to catch this 'PoH' today even if I have to turn this city upside down! I want this son of a bit-."

_Looks like some squads are actually better functioning than I thought._ Orion mused as he walked past the angry sergeant and the group of army players. Nearby a crowd of player was gathering, curious and confused by the strange reactions of the army.

However, his opinion of the army soon changed, when he saw another army group, only several blocks away guarding an army check point. This group of three was clearly nervous about the message and was too busy discussing it to take notice of Orion.

"This is PoH. Something big is gonna happen" The tall private said to his shorter friend.

"No it ain't idiot, we wiped out the laughing coffins a month ago."

"But PoH was never caught, what if he is coming for revenge?"

"Ya but not to us, we didn't do nothing to em, it's the dam clearers he's after." The shorter guard explained trying to reassure his friend.

"Shut up both of you." The corporal said as he smacked subordinators in the head. "I just got new orders. If you see anyone acting suspicious you are to arrest them immediately even if they are green players."

"Like those hooligans who hang out over there all day?" The short private said, pointing to a dark corner where a few young players were loitering around.

"You mean those 'criminals' that we are going to lock up now, let's arrest the lot of them and uhhh 'confiscate' anything they might be holding as evidence." The corporal finishing his justification for arrest marched menacingly towards the group of green players, followed by two of his men.

_So far so good, just arrest couple more people..._ Orion thought as he walked away from the unfolding scene. Behind him he could hear the plea of innocence that was followed by a sharp sound of weapons being drawn.

* * *

Ignoring the other army activity in his path, he finally arrived at his destination, the central plaza. Leaning against one of the pillars at the outer edge, he listened to passionate speaker in the center of the plaza surrounded by close to a thousand players.

"-History repeats itself! For too long we have been oppressed and do you know why!? Because we did not act! And if you do not act now! History shall repeat itself and we will end up in this situation again! We must band together and teach the army a lesson!"

The crowd cheered enthusiastically, and in the corner of his eye, Orion spotted a company of army players suspiciously watching the crowd, ready to intervene should the situation become out of control.

"The army" Zek pointed towards the Black Iron Castle. "Is telling us lies! We must make them realize that we are not to be toyed with!"

"But we can't go against them! They are much stronger and well armed!" A lone voice cried out from the crowd.

"And just what exactly have 'you' done to fight them!?" Zek angrily fingered the general direction where the complaint arose. "We have been bullied by these goons for far too long! Enough is enough! It is time to rise up against them and regain our freedom!"

"We can ask the Clearers to help! They will listen! They must listen!" Another voiced shouted out from the crowd. In response, Zek raised his hand to silence the unknown speaker before continuing.

"They cannot, and will not help us! In this struggle, it is up to us! If you cannot understand why we should rise up, look around you! How many of your friends or family member has been taken away by the army for speaking against them! How many of you!?" The members of the crowd looked at each other and muttered in agreement. Seeing his message sink in, the old professor began once more.

"Just today more than a hundred people have been taken into that devil's lair and for what?! Were they guilty of a crime!?"

"No!" The riled up crowed shouted in response, many of them remembering the rows of friends and family members marching towards the Black Iron Castle escorted by the guards like cattle.

"That's right! They were taken because the army does not want us to question them! They want us to be subdued like animals! I say no more! I for one had just about enough of this! We are all stuck in this game, and I will not be bullied by bunch of control freaks!"

The crowd responded with a roar of approval, and some of army players threw off their equipment and joined the angry crowd, while the remaining army players hastily retreated in fear of being overwhelmed.

Fueled by their enthusiasm, Zek spoke with the absolute authority. "We must liberate those who have been imprisoned falsely! We will march to the Black Iron castle and release the prisoners! Even if we have to do it with force! Who is with me!?"

An even bigger response from the crowd shook the plaza as they screamed their approval. Without waiting for further direction, the mob began marching towards the Black Iron Castle, their voice of discontent louder than any noise heard in the city before. Orion followed the anger mob at slower pace at a safe distance, taking care not to be caught up with the movement.

* * *

The angry crowd like an avalanche grew in size as bystanders joined in or were simply swept by them. By the time the number neared two thousand, the mob managed to push and shove their way past the Army checkpoint, the few guards at the outpost were being swept up in the sea of angry players, their weapons ineffective within the city's crime prevention code.

"We can't hold them!" A private said blocking a piece of fruit that was thrown at him with a shield. "Get help, call for th-" The private's plea went silent as he disappeared beneath the sea of angry players.

The other private seeing his friend disappearing, panicked with his eyes full of fear. "Call for back up! Vee can't hold zem back!"

"Shut up Numbers! Pull yourself together!" The corporal said as he pushed off several protesters with his shield, only to find to realize that his act of resistance were futile, so he turned around and yelled to the man on top of the nearby tower of the castle itself. "Alert the base Murphy! They are coming through!"

Observing from a safe distance, Orion smiled at the trouble that the army was facing, then opened his inventory and replaced his brown clothes for the clunky iron armor that the army favored. Satisfied with his disguise, he walked confidently to one of the side entrances to Black Iron Castle that was not under attack by an angry mob.

As Orion approached the side entrance, he noticed a lone sentry posted outside the door, who clearly enjoyed watching the events taking place at the main entrance, far from his post.

The sentry noticing Orion focused his attention to the visitor. "Stop right there buddy, this door is closed, if you wanna get in try the main entrance." The sentry said with a sarcastic smile on his face.

_And now for the magic word._

"I am captain Auctoritas, internal affairs division, I am here to ensure the safety of the warden Galug from the fugitive PoH, now open the door."

The guard at the word 'internal affairs division' and remembering all the horror stories, straightened himself up and tried to look as professional as he could.

"PFC Knox 4th guard division! Sorry sir but beyond this point is a secure area and only those with authorization can pass."

Orion put on a frown, crossed his arms together and tried his best to look as intimidating as possible. "I am under order from high command, if you continue to hinder my progress I will personally throw you into one of those cells, now shut up, get out of the way and lead me to warden Galug."

"Y-YEs Cpatain!" Knox gripped in fear hastily opened the door for Orion.

Stepping inside, Orion was greeted with a relatively familiar sight of the prison he escaped roughly a month ago, but with soldiers who were now rushing to the main gate in an attempt to keep the angry mob at bay rather than keeping them in.

"Alert- Alert All available personal report to the main entrance! Containment failure imminent! Repeat All Personal-"

The announcement outside went silent as Knox closed the door behind him. Orion escorted by his ever faithful servant, headed towards the Warden's office located deep within the Castle.

* * *

After a few minutes, the duo arrived at their destination, a solid oak door guarded by two jailers. Forgoing his introductions to the two grunts standing watch Orion knocked on the door.

Without waiting for an answer, Orion opened the door and stepped into the room with all the projection of authority he could muster and quickly closed the door behind him, leaving Knox with the two guards.

"Who are you?" The bald man sitting behind the desk asked visibly alarmed at the intruder.

"Captain Auctoritas, internal division." Orion introduced himself and enjoyed watching the warden squirm a little, at the mention of the infamous division.

Speaking with a voice of an aristocratic, one that was full of confidence and cold tone of voice, Orion addressed the Warden. "I have reason to believe that a group of assassins are planning on orchestrating a massive escape during the confusion outside. High command has given authorization for you to hand over the master key to myself until the end of the situation outside."

Sighing relief, the bald man stood up and shook Orion's hand. "Wow you arrived fast. I just sent a message requesting additional support."

"The internal affairs division believes in precision and efficiency." Orion replied with the trademark arrogance of the internal division.

"Of-of course! Yes, here is the master key. Is there anything else I could help you with?"

"Yes, have a drink and don't come out of the room until this mess is sorted out." Orion pulled out a drink laced with sleeping poison and handed it to the warden. "I'll personally place my guards in front of your office to ensure that no one disturbs you."

"Thank you Captain!" The warden said as Orion left the room and closed the door behind him. Once outside he motioned to the two guards and Knox.

"No one is to see the warden, he is in extreme danger and if any of you open that door or let someone aside from myself in there, I will have your heads chopped off and mounted on my trophy wall. Do you understand?!"

"Of course sir!" The trio replied eagerly, terrified to be part of an insane man's trophy case.

"While you are at it, contact jailers and send them to the front entrance, this is not the time to be watching prisoners where there is a riot right outside the window!"

"Right away Captain!" One of the two guard responded as he quickly mumbled into the communication crystal, sending the message out to all the jailers.

Feeling satisfied, Orion left the three grunts to carry out his orders, and headed down towards the detention block, the master key jingling gently as he rushed down stairs.

* * *

Arriving at the first cell, Orion inserted the key and opened the door. Inside there were several green players staring at him with fear. "Who-who are you?" One of the frightened men asked.

"Your fairy god father. Now step out of the cell and step into that teleport gate, it ends directly outside the prison." Orion gestured to the prisoners while he used and placed the Corridor Crystal in the middle of the hallway.

Without waiting for the subdued players to find their own freedom, Orion continued down the cell block and opened the next series of cells, simply shouting into each cell about the corridor crystal and their chance to get out of jail.

Not surprisingly there was a large resistance at first but once some of the braver prisoners made run for their freedom, the rest soon followed until every prisoner scrambled to reach the teleport gate before it would close up on them.

Feeling satisfied with the progress that was being made, Orion approached what he thought was last cell of the prison around the corner, a familiar voice yelled at him from it."Hey Orion! Fancy seeing you here! I heard you escaped, but I guess that was a lie."

Turning to face the source of the voice, Orion saw XaXa holding onto the bars like a wild animal, behind him was his ever faithful sidekick Johnny Black, twitching like an addict.

"Funny... last time I checked I am not one behind bars... But today is your luck day, PoH your boss in case you forgot he existed, asked me to get everyone out. Sadly for all sane players out there that includes you two."

"Haha I knew he would come around to getting us out!"

"Ya, ya, so is this the last cell?" Orion asked.

"Nah, there is one more down the hall but that one is being guarded by jailers day and night, no idea who is in it though."

"I hear singing sometimes from there, beautiful sound hehehehe." Johnny muttered as he continued to twitch.

"Right... thanks for the info druggy, as for your escape, head straight down the hall then there will be a corridor crystal. After you get out, you are on your own."

Orion with much regret opened the cell door and let the two orange players out, who without any word of thanks simply ran and vanished around the corner.

_One more cell to go... so far so good._

Feeling extremely confident, he whistled a happy tune as he approached the last cell, its guards gone to defend the front entrance against the angry mob, but in their place a middle aged man wearing something that resembled a white lab coat looked at him as if he was a dead man walking.

"You! Where are all the guards!? This prisoner needs to be under guard at all times!" The man spoke with a terrified face.

"And just who are you supposed to be?" Orion said, putting his hand on his hips trying to look as menacing as he could.

"I am doctor Kozhevnikov, head researcher of the-"

"And I am captain Auctoritas and frankly I do not give a dam, now get out my way, 'doctor'. I have orders to release this prisoner immediately."

"Bu-but you are insane! You do not know what you are doing."

"Oh but I do, in fact I suggest you run as fast as you can if you are that scared."

"You-you are going to regret this! I am going to file a report!" The doctor taking Orion's advice ran away from the isolation cell as fast as he could.

Shrugging, Orion inserted the master key into the lock and opened the door. Inside there was a tall skinny women with long brown hair with green eyes, she was dressed in relatively simple clothes.

_Hardly looks dangerous, but then again looks can be deceiving, I mean I am a cold handsome man on the outside but in the inside I am loving teddy bear who wouldn't hurt a butterfly. _

Feeling a little bit better about himself, Orion pointed to the open cell door."Time to go."

"Is it time already? Hmm... PoH must have sent you" The woman inside the cell yawned and stretched herself. "Do you happen to have a harp on you?"

_A harp?_ "Sorry got none on me. But that's not important, you should head down the corridor and exit the prison through the corridor crystal." Orion said as he pointed in the general direction of the teleport gate.

"What a shame... so if you are not from the army who are you?" The woman casually asked as she stepped out of the cell and walked towards the teleport gate.

_Wait a second how did she know that PoH sent me here? _Instead keeping his poker face he replied."A hired farm hand, what do you think?"

"Ha! It has been a while since someone had a sense of humor….. I hope I will see you on the other side." The prisoner said as she went around the corner and disappeared from his view.

Orion stood there scratching his head and thinking. _Something doesn't feel right here... ahh screw it. Job's done, let's go out of here. _Orion dismissing his thoughts began walking towards the teleport gate. However, once he turned the corner, he found that the gate had now closed, leaving him stranded.

_Of course the racist portal closes down when the mastermind of the plan tries to make a perfect getaway..._

Cursing his bad luck and unwilling to waste teleport crystal, Orion walked towards general direction of the main exit. Just as he turned the corner and saw the exit, a voice yelled at him."You there stop and identify yourself!"

Squinting against the bright rays of light coming from the main exit, he was able to spot a figure, surrounded by several shadows next to him.

"Captain Auctoritas, internal division. 'Identify' yourself!" Imitating the arrogance he often heard in the internal division's officers.

"Major Veritas! 'Head' of Internal Division son, and I sure don't have no 'Captain' Auctoras in it." The elderly voice replied from the shadow.

_Shit... internal division what are they doing here?... Right the warden called them in._

"Arrest that imposter immediately sergeant!" The major screamed, while Orion figured out the small variable he missed in his grand plan.

Without waiting to see if the good sergeant could indeed arrest him, Orion ran like the wind, heading back towards the detention block.

* * *

The guards despite their lower dexterity level seemed to have no problem keeping up with Orion and even started to gain on him. Not knowing how he long could elude the guards on his tail, Orion panicked and opened the first wooden door he saw at the end of the hall.

Inside was stone staircase that spiralled upward, without reading the signs that would have told him where he was going due to his restricted timetable, Orion chose to take the chance and sprinted towards the top.

After climbing staircases for a good full minute, Orion arrived at another wooden door. Without waiting to see what was on the other side, he burst open the door at the top of the staircase and saw a magnificent view of the Starting City before him. Looking at his surroundings, it was clear that he was on one of the towers of the castle itself.

Behind him he could hear the guards climbing up the stairs, their footsteps echoing louder every second. Quickly closing the door behind him, Orion leaned his body over the tower wall and tried to find an alternative escape route.

_Too high, if I fall from here I am going to be splattered. _Orion thought as he measured the distance from the tower to the ground. For moment he considered climbing the outer layers of the tower but dismissed the idea when he realized that there was nowhere enough stones poking out or pushed in for him to take advantage of and climb down the tower.

But as he continued to survey his surroundings, he could see the innocent prisoners hugging their family and friends in the streets, while the actual criminals ran as fast as they could away from the city. Meanwhile the mob apparently satisfied that their lost ones have been returned to them, retreated back to their homes.

Forgetting about his current situation for a moment, Orion enjoyed the master piece he had created and laughed out loudly like a madman.

Sadly, the universe did not approve of his moment of victory as the tower door opened violently, with guards pouring out from it.

"Don't move scumbag." One of his pursuers said to him pointing a sharp spear towards his neck.

"Relax buddy, I am sure this all a misunderstanding." Orion said as took step back towards the edge with a plan formulating in his mind.

"I don't think so." The elderly major Orion met a few minutes ago arrived to the scene and informed him. "Impersonating an internal affairs officer and breaking into prison is serious offence son, now you are gonna come quietly-"

"Uh no." Orion opened inventory and scrolled down towards his teleporting crystal.

Seeing what he was about to do the guards formed a semi circle around Orion and closed in on him, their weapons now inches from him. Realizing how many spears were on him and how fast they could kill him if he resisted, Orion froze on the spot.

"Hey, hey ok-okay you got me." Orion slowly raised both of his arms and took another step towards the edge of the tower, while facing the guards.

"On your knees now!" One of the guard's said, his spear now inches from his neck.

"Just to let you know, I don't think taking advantage of prisoner for *cough* sexual *cough* favor is approved by the army high command."

"Shut up and do it now!" The guard replied back, clearly not amused with Orion's attempt to break the ice.

Seeing no other option, Orion kept his arms raised and began bending his knees as he was told. The guard's seeing their command was being followed relaxed but moments later without warning, Orion leaped backwards and fell off the tower. As he became airborne, time seemed to crawl at snail's pace as he saw the expression of confusion painted on the face of his pursuers.

_Take that you old fart! You didn't think I was going to jump did ya! And you thought you were sooooo smart-_

After a brief moment of free fall, Orion stopped thinking for a moment and grabbed one of the loose stones poking out from the tower with his right hand and held on for his dear life.

"Where did he go?!" The guard above Orion screamed as he leaned his head out to see where their fugitive had gone. Not willing to risk the chance of being spotted again, Orion brought out the teleporting crystal from his inventory with his left hand, just as his right hand lost his grip on the loose stone, and managed to shout "Teleport Lindearth!" and felt his body disintegrate into thin air.

* * *

**A/N**

Went back and re-read my chapters and I came to a conclusion. Jesus Christ did I type like that all the time? I am sorry that readers such as yourself had to read my poor writing up till this point. (And to a certain degree even now) Fortunately, by the time you have finished reading this chapter, at least the first five chapters of the story has been completely overhauled with additional jokes, hidden names and of course better grammar. I salute you Nocreativity for reminding me to fix up the story for the enjoyment of others! I'd be drowning in guilt if you didn't help me! Next chapter will be posted by Sunday. (11/4) Yes it is soon, especially for this lazy writer... but it will be there.


	11. Epilogue or How They Lived Happily Ever

**Epilogue or How They Lived Happily Ever After**

"Oww" Orion grunted as he landed head first into the ground upon his arrival in 48th floor. "Stupid game mechanics." he muttered as he brushed himself clean.

Picking himself up from the ground, Orion surveyed his surroundings and once he was sure that he had arrived on the 48th floor, he grinned like an idiot.

_Ha! I've done it, I Orion! Master of the universe has managed to start a riot, break into a secure jail, steal off the warden's key then made it back to safety! All in one day!_

Taking the moment to let his thoughts run wild, Orion skipped around the town square with a happy face, waving his arms around like a maniac as nearby players watched with horror and concern.

Noticing that people were staring, Orion shouted into the air. "I am Orion! Bow down before my brilliance! For it is I who managed to achieve impossible!"

Sadly no one went on their knees or bowed towards the Orion, instead the spectators shook their heads and went back to business, as they made up their minds about the crazy man dancing and screaming in the middle of the street.

But not everyone ran away, a small boy who looked like he was about to hit his adolescence approached Orion. "Excuse me…. are you Orion?" He asked him.

"Yes, I am Orion! The greatest man who ever walked in this game!" Orion flashed a dazzling smile at the boy as he studied the boy's clothing, who was wearing the uniform of a courier company and held a small rectangular package wrapped in paper in one of his arms. "What can I do for you?"

The boy sighed deeply then muttered quietly to himself. "Why do I always get the crazy ones."

"What was that my dear boy?"

In response the delivery boy coughed a few times before continuing. "Nothing, …. I have a delivery package, from one of your friends."

_A package? This is a bit strange. Sanitator doesn't send packages….. _

Orion stopped smiling, and studied the boy holding the package to see if he could get any useful information out of him.

_Maybe it's a bomb! Sent by the army to assassinate me in the middle of the streets! _A small panicked voice inside his head screamed at him.

Unwilling to run from a little boy without a good reason, Orion asked cautiously, ready to bolt at any moment. "Uhh I wouldn't suppose you know what's inside the box do you?"

The boy answered with a curious face. "No sir, company policy says we are not to open any of the goods that are being delivered."

Still feeling skeptical Orion added, while he wondered how a delivery boy managed to track him down so quickly when the biggest organization in the game, the army, had failed to track him for over a year. "Do you know who sent it?"

"Someone by the name of PoH? Wait…. that can't be right." The boy casually scratched his head as he looked at the description of the package.

_Yes that can't be right, I did not expect him to be handing this stone this quickly…. this is a too strange. Let's see if the boy is indeed an innocent courier he claims to be._

Smiling once more, Orion reassured the little boy as he looked at the package. "Ah don't worry about it, that's just a practical joke my friend plays on all the couriers, in fact I name all my packages '_Heathcliff'."_

At the name Heathcliff the boy twitched just a little but enough to support Orion's theory. "Okay….. I- well. Here is the package then ." The boy visible confused, stuttered as he offered the package to Orion.

_Either he hates Heathcliff or he is a member of the coffin, if it's the latter that would explain how the package arrived this fast….. in any case the chances of it being a bomb are fairly low. _

Orion's smile returned back to him as he calculated his odds of his bomb theory coming true, feeling lucky he decided to take the chance. Orion with a steady hand, carefully grabbed the package waiting for it to explode. Fortunately for him the package remained still and did not violently kill him. Feeling a little bit safer he shooed the little boy away and made sure that no one was near when he opened the package.

Inside was the most beautiful thing he ever saw, the Divine Stone of Returning Soul, a fist sized stone that glowed blue as he held it in his hands.

_Ha… ha… hahaha….. I finally have it! Such a long search, it is finally over…. now what. _

Putting his back against a statue in the middle of the town, he slumped to the ground and wondered what he should do next.

A small voice inside his head coughed and grabbed his attention. _If you are done playing stupid, it's time for you to get up and go live happily ever after._

_What? _He replied back to the small voice.

_The stone is useless, you know that, you are not going to just magically revive all your friends who died on the 25th floor. It's over. Done. Good day. Thank you for playing. You've kept your promise to a dying friend._

_So what, I go off __riding into the sunset__? I think I went past that point when the bodies piled up._

_Yes but all of them deserved it, one way or another. _The soothing voice replied back as his mind took a small trip down the memory lane and remembered all the killing he had done for over a year.

_Is this how I really think? An evil voice justifying everything I've done and telling me that there is a happy fairy tale ending? _Orion thought as his hands twiddled with the stone.

The small voice aware of his doubt, answered back smartly. _Only if you don't try, you have a good life living with Lisbeth or as you as put it, a job in this 'tough economy', so go! Your part in this story is done. Or do you have something better in mind?_

Reluctantly he stood up and headed towards the shop, with the stone safely tucked inside his inventory.

* * *

Arriving back at the shop, he was welcomed by his ever faithful friend, the clark who shouted."Welcome to the store!"

"Thanks Clerk, it's good to be back, how are the kids?"

The clerk simply smiled with a knowing look in his eyes. Orion nodded in acknowledgement and looked around for Lisbeth. Seeing as she was nowhere to be found inside the store, Orion guessed that she was working in the workshop.

Whistling a cheerful tune, he approached the door behind the store and opened it, behind it he found Lisbeth tinkering with a Greenish-white blade.

"Lisbeth!" Orion yelled across the room to grab her attention.

Lisbeth hearing his voice merely looked in his direction once before going back to work. Shocked at her response Orion shouted. "Wait a second! No hugs? Last time I made it out of prison you were so worried!"

"Well…. this time you walked in there let everyone out, you weren't really in danger." Lisbeth said half heartedly, consumed by her work.

Slightly disappointed in her response, Orion approached Lisbeth and looked at the finely crafted one handed sword she was working on, with a hint of jealously. "I don't suppose that would be mine?"

"You wish, this is Kirito's custom ordered sword."

"That's a shame. I thought you forgot about that whole incident, in fact I was hoping you would forget about giving one of the guys that tried to kill me a better weapon." Orion commented, deeply regretting the fact that he had handed over the ingot right before he went off to the Black Iron Castle.

"And lose one of my highest paying customers? I don't think so, besides I knew you would say that so... I am planning on making you something nearly as good."

Orion slightly annoyed that Kritio was going to better armed than he was and sooner, made snide comment. "Hmm… I suppose I will have to be happy with that, but I must say…. the sword looks beautiful, who knew you could make something out of crap."

"What? This was made from that rare ore you found in the bottom of the dragon's nest." Lisbeth said confused at why he would say such a thing.

Realizing that she did not know where the ingot came from, Orion snickered at Lisbeth. "Sorry, what I meant to say was, Kritio will be delighted to have a 'shitty' sword."

"This is the best sword I made throughout the whole game!" Lisbeth said a little angry that Orion would discredit her work.

Lisbeth gave him a strange look, then shook her head and asked about his day. "So I am guessing that everything went well?"

"Yes, it went well, everyone in Aincrad can sleep a little less comfortable tonight with all the criminals I released." Orion replied with a grin.

Lisbeth turned her attention back to the sword, and asked. "So did you talk to PoH and get the stone that you after?"

"Yes its right here….. but listen liz, I have a series of confessions to make." Orion said with a serious expression drawn on his face.

Lisbeth noticing his expression, stopped. "What is it you want me to tell me?"

Orion unable to hide his smile laughed. "I want to tell you that…. you made a 'shit' sword."

Lisbeth obviously not amused at his attempt to get back at her, threw her hammer into Orion's face, landing it squarely on his face.

"Owww… if this was not a game I could have been killed!" Orion said as he massaged his face and checked that none of parts had fallen off from it.

"And you would have deserved it…. calling someone's work crap…. so do you have a real confession or are you just going to make fun of my work?" Lisbeth said with a somewhat threatening tone of voice, this time playfully holding a mace in her hand.

Realizing that he may get his face bashed in with a Mace, Orion decided to confess his crimes. "Yes I do, listen when we first met you asked me if I had killed anyone. Well the truth is I killed more than a few people."

"I know, I assumed as much." Lisbeth said a calming down from his inappropriate joke.

"Huh? You knew?" Orion said puzzled at how she could have known, until he figured that it wasn't such a big secret. "Uhh anyways... the reason I had to do it I was because I was searching for an item that I needed not for myself but for someone else."

"The item would be the stone right?"

"Yes" Orion answered as he pulled out the Divine Stone of Returning Soul on top of the table. "And I want you to have it."

"What?" Lisbeth said clearly surprised. "Haven't you been looking for this for long time?"

"Yes I have but…" After heavy sigh he continued. "Well….. I had a friend who wanted me to do everything I could do to bring his sister back to life and this…."

Orion said as he picked up the stone and handed it to Lisbeth. "This is the last piece I had to find before I did everything I promised."

"So is this your redemption? A final gesture to prove that you did everything you could? Wait did you said this stone can bring people back to life?"

"Yes, yes and yes."

Lisbeth shocked at what she could be holding in her hands, quickly checked the stone's information to see if all of this was indeed true. After looking at the item stats she asked. "You did this even though you knew that the stone only had 10 seconds?"

"Well I didn't know if the item had only ten seconds but I figured it couldn't have been used to bring someone from the dead in the real world once the brains were fried." Orion explained staring at the stone with rather mournful expression.

"But if I hadn't tried to find the stone, I probably would have just gave up and go live in the 1st floor of the game, drowning with guilt... besides I made a promise to a friend as he died and I had to keep it."

"So how did all this begin?"

"Well…. it's a long story but if you want I can tell you."

Lisbeth looked at Orion with a worried look. "It's alright. If you don't want to, you don't have to tell me."

"No... No… you might as well as hear the full story." Orion cleared his throat and began speaking in a narrative voice. "Once upon a time in Aincrad…"

* * *

**A/N (From this point onwards you are reading at your own risk!)**

Surprise! The story is over! (Also I originally planned to release this story tomorrow on the 11/4 but as Iariz pointed out well... when someone says **by** it means before that day... so yes a minor fail on my part as I rushed to edit and double check the story.)

Wait what? What do you mean the story is over you old fart, is probably what you are thinking right now. The answer is well... Orion did find his stone… so yes uhh this story is done. That was the ultimate goal, he found it, he got it, and he danced... so as anticlimactic and quick the story may seem, it is done, so good bye!

*sound of a knife being drawn*

Wait no! I was kidding! No this is not the end of Orion! I promise I will write a more interesting story line! No please no no! I am innocent! In fact, after a short break I will post a new story and that will shed some light to this, just put the knife down! (But sadly Orion will not be the main character so say good bye to his charms WAIT! no no I said I will get to it later… please…. I don't want to die!) *gurgling sound as knife is inserted into the neck*

Now that I have been brutally murdered in the last author's note of the story, I will share a few secrets with you. (Also I will be **rambling** on for quite a bit...you have been warned, the content below is mostly** gibberish** that has little to do with the story!)

As all of you know, this is my first fan fiction. I had a great time writing this, and I thank every one of you who have read it and had a wonderful time. (If you laughed, then even better!)

I would like to take a moment and thank every single reviewer... RandomStranger, Sternreader, Lda, SparklingDonkey, IarIz, Lostguy, Randomletters, Nocreativity, Two Guests, and RandomFTW42.

I cannot express my gratitude for your support in helping me finish this story. As some of you may have noticed, I have planted almost all of your names inside the story, to show my appreciation for your support. (Sorry for those I couldn't put them in the story)

Though it may seem a little odd…. here are three examples of where I buried these names.

If you spell the name of the newspaper editor's name backwards, it will spell someone's name.

Are you lost buddy is really for lostguy with the guy changed for buddy. (Saying "are you lost guy" just didn't sound right)

Stern the name of Sanitator's dog is a part of Sternreader's name.

If you find more hidden names than good for you, my hats off to you for being a perspective reader!

Once again, I enjoyed writing about a cold blooded killer with a heart, a sense of humour and most importantly a little brain power. Thank you for reading and I sure hope that you are reading these words as happy as I am writing them.

As of 2012, November 3rd 10:25 PM, this story is officially finished. (Grammar edits will occur whenever I see mistakes in the story) Thank you for reading!


End file.
